Aliens (1986)

Director:

James Cameron

Writers:

James Cameron (story) and
David Giler (story) &
Walter Hill (story) ...

Release Date:

18 July 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

This time there's more.

Plot:

The planet from Alien (1979) has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, enough?

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Space | Space Marine | Nightmare | Cat

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 21 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

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

Also Known As:

"Alien 2" - Japan (English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for monster violence, and for language. (1992 special edition)

Runtime:

137 min | USA:154 min (special edition)

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

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

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (1999) | Italy:T | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Finland:K-18 (director's cut) (DVD rating) | South Korea:12 | Portugal:M/16 | Brazil:14 | Philippines:R-18 | USA:R (Certificate #27850) | South Korea:15 (DVD rating) | India:A | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Iceland:16 | Ireland:18 | Japan:PG-12 | Mexico:B | Netherlands:16 | Norway:18 | Peru:14 | Singapore:M18 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

According to the 1991 Special Widescreen Collector's Edition Laserdisc release of the movie (presented on the Bonus Disc of the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVD Box Set), James Cameron turned in the first treatment for the film, called Alien II at the time, on September 21, 1983. Some of the differences between this initial treatment and the final film included the following: - The character of Carter Burke was absent, instead, his dialogue was given to someone named Dr. O'Niel, who did not join Ripley and the marines on their voyage to the colony planet. - Instead of being taken to the Gateway Station, Ripley was taken to Earth Station Beta. - The name of the colony planet was Acheron, taken from the script of Alien (1979), instead of LV-426. - Ripley's daughter was alive, and Ripley had a disheartening videophone conversation with her, where she blamed Ripley for abandoning her by going to space. - There were multiple atmospheric processors on the planet. - The initial discovery of the aliens on the colony planet is much longer, where it is shown how Newt's father gets to the site of the eggs and is jumped by a facehugger. - An additional scene involves a rescue team going to the site of the alien eggs and being jumped by tens of facehuggers. - The aliens sting people to paralyze them before either killing or cocooning them. - At one point Ripley, Newt and Hicks get cocooned. - The aliens cocooning people are a different breed. They look like smaller, albino versions of the warrior aliens. - Bishop refuses to land on the planet and pick up Ripley, Hicks and Newt, indicating "the risk of contaminating other inhabited worlds is too great." - Ripley ends up using the colonists' shuttle to get back to the Sulaco. - Bishop tells her: "You were right about me all along." The first draft script was turned in by Cameron on May 30, 1985. This draft was quite different from the treatment, but very close to the final film.

Goofs:

Continuity: Gorman tells Ripley that the pulse rifles shoot caseless ammunition, yet when Vasquez lets off a long burst in the air duct one can see brass casings flying out from it.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Featured in "V: We Can't Win (#1.8)" (2010)

Soundtrack:

Movie music

Excellent sequel--matches the brilliance of the first film

Series note: It is strongly advised that you watch this film only after seeing Alien (1979). This is a direct continuation of that story.

57 years after the events of the first film, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is found and awakened from hyper sleep to discover that a terraforming colony has been set up on LV-426, the planet wherein she and her fellow crew of the mining cargo spaceship Nostromo first encountered the titular aliens. When Earth-based communications loses contact with LV-426, a band of marines are sent to investigate, taking Ripley and a representative from the company that financed the colony, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) along for the ride.

For the difficult job of following up Ridley Scott's excellent Alien, director James Cameron decided to go a completely different route--to make a fast moving, slightly tongue-in-cheek, boisterous action extravaganza. Remarkably, he was able to do that while still maintaining a stylistic and literary continuity that melds Aliens seamlessly with the first film.

Ripley is much more fully developed in this film, although unfortunately, some of the most significant scenes were deleted from the theatrical release (if at all possible, watch the 2-hour and 37-minute director's cut instead). Cameron fashioned Aliens into a grand arc where Ripley's actions at the end of the film have much more meaning as she's not only fighting monsters, but also fighting to retain a semblance of something she lost due to her 57-year hyper sleep. As in the first film, she is still the most intelligent, courageous and resourceful member of the crew, but she has much more colorful company.

The marines accompanying Ripley back to LV-426 may be too cartoonish for some tastes (as for viewers of that opinion, most of the action and the film overall is likely to be too cartoonish), but for anyone more agreeable to that kind of caricatured exaggeration, it's a joy to watch. I'm a big fan of both Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen, and both turn in wonderfully over-the-top performances, at their diametrically opposed ends of the emotional spectrum--Paxton as the spastic surfer/redneck and Henriksen as the intense, moody sage, with a surprising reality and an even more surprising conscience to go along with it. We also get a cigar-chomping Sergeant, a crazy, butch Private, and a complex, pensive Corporal as main characters, and a mysterious, bright young girl (played in a terrific performance by Carrie Henn). Much of the center section of the film hinges on the interrelationships of these characters, despite the action trappings going on around them.

Cameron carries over the crypt/labyrinth motif of the first film, and adds a metaphorical descent into the bowels of hell in the climax. The action throughout is suspenseful. Aliens contains one of my favorite "cat fights" in any film. It's also worth noting the influence this film may have had on Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers (1997)--although admittedly, we could say that Cameron was influenced a bit by the Robert A. Heinlein book, as well. Throughout all of the varied action sequences, as well as the important early scenes of colonists on LV-426, Cameron is able to clearly convey the logistics of very complex sets, so that viewers remain on the edges of their seats.

Part of what makes the monsters so effective is that we're not told too much about them. We only get glimpses into their physiology's, their behavioral patterns and their intelligence. Cameron gives us just enough to become wrapped up in the film, but not so much that we become overly familiar with the aliens, or start to question the logic behind the film. He also smartly carries over some devices from the first film that were abandoned to an extent, such as the acidic blood of the aliens, and he supplies answers to the few questions that the first film raised, such as why the blood doesn't corrode instruments and objects when a dead alien is examined.

Aliens is yet another example of a sequel that is just as good as an original film in a series. Just make sure you watch both in order, and try to watch the director's cuts.