Aliens (1986)

The planet from Alien has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough?

Director:

James Cameron

Writers:

James Cameron (story), David Giler (story),

Stars:

Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn

Top 250 #58 | Won 2 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 21 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sigourney Weaver	...	Ellen Ripley
Carrie Henn	...	Rebecca 'Newt' Jorden
Michael Biehn	...	Cpl. Dwayne Hicks
Paul Reiser	...	Carter Burke
Lance Henriksen	...	Bishop
Bill Paxton	...	Pvt. Hudson
Jenette Goldstein	...	Pvt. Vasquez
William Hope	...	Lt. Gorman
Al Matthews	...	Sgt. Apone
Mark Rolston	...	Pvt. Drake
Ricco Ross	...	Pvt. Frost
Colette Hiller	...	Cpl. Ferro
Daniel Kash	...	Pvt. Spunkmeyer
Cynthia Dale Scott	...	Cpl. Dietrich (as Cynthia Scott)
Tip Tipping	...	Pvt. Crowe

Storyline

Fifty seven years after Ellen Ripley survived her disastrous ordeal, her escape vessel is recovered after drifting across the galaxy as she slept in cryogenic stasis. Back on earth, nobody believed her story about the "Aliens" on the planet LV-426. After the "Company" orders the colony on LV-426 to investigate, however, all communication with the colony is lost. The Company enlists Ripley to aid a team of tough, rugged space marines on a rescue mission to the now partially terraformed planet to find out if there are aliens or survivors. As the mission unfolds, Ripley will be forced to come to grips with her worst nightmare, but even as she does, she finds that the worst is yet to come.

---

Plot Keywords:

alien | space marine | nightmare | rescue | extraterrestrial | 

---

Taglines:

This time it's war

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for monster violence, and for language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 July 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alien 2

Filming Locations:

Acton Lane Power Station, Acton Lane, Acton, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$18,500,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$85,200,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Brandywine Productions, SLM Production Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

137 min 154 min (1992 special edition)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The camo pattern worn by the Marines was custom made for the movie, but due to its similarity it is often confused for one called "frog and leaf," which is no longer in production.

---

Goofs

Burke tells Ripley that she was in "an usually long hyper-sleep" for 57 years. Thus, it is highly unlikely that Ripley would be familiar with goings on at the time she awoke--on earth, on the Sulaco, at her job "driving loaders" and on LV-426 (e.g., the blueprint display in operations--without extensive rehabilitation or familiarization counseling. The technology, social customs and company she worked for (Weyland-Yutani) policy changes would have been too much for her to understand and go back to LV-426 in such a short time.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Salvage team leader: Bio-readouts are all in the green, looks like she's alive. Well, there goes our salvage, guys.

---

Crazy Credits

As the final credits fade, there is the sound of a facehugger scurrying across from left to right.

---

Connections

References Them! (1954)

---

Soundtracks

"Movie music"
Performed by London Symphony Orchestra

User Reviews

Aliens..My all time favourite Sci-Fi movies. It rocks!

I have watched this movie when I was a pre-teen at the cinema, and MY! It completely blew me away. It has got my adrenalin pumping so hard that I almost wanted to slip back to my seat and take a breather! Although during that time I didn't quite understand most parts of it (too young to understand), I was deeply immersed into such rich story-telling and the fantastic alien creatures. The tensely build-up atmosphere and the space-ships, grips you so tightly it seems never to let go.

This movie rocks, scares you right on to your face, very mysterious, have tons of special effects (not quite CGI though, but the mechanical aliens looks just so threatening and scary). James Cameron is such a fabulous story-teller in this Sci-Fi stellar! The movie ran at more than 2 hours but I didn't feel that at all. Actually James has cut out a lot of scenes for this theatrical release back then, but you can still get those scenes back on the DVD (extra 17 minutes footage).

The acting is good especially from Sigourney Weaver, Paul Reiser and Lance Henriksen (as the robot). Sigourney's Ripley is such a strong-willed woman, that even put shame to men (somehow I feel this is quite unbelievable, because she has got so much energy, especially the scene where she gets back to the Queen's hatch to save Newt). I have watched other alien series (Alien legacy - All four parts), but I can say this part 2 of the series is my favourite, followed by Alien, then Alien:Resurrection, and lastly Alien3)

I am quite happy to see this film stays high at one of the top Sci-Fi movies in IMDB)

Till now as an adult, I still go back to watch this DVD occasionally and every time I watch it again, it brings in a completely new scare, and new thoughts, also the new meaning of what is a horror movie all about!

Highly recommended if you haven't watched this yet. I give it an 8 out of 10! (Truly deserves the high IMDB rating at 8.2 to-date)