Ah ALIENS, where to begin. This film will always have a special place in my heart. I remember first watching it when I was around 13 years old. Me and a friend managed to convince his Dad to rent it from a local video rental shop. Was special at the time because I was not used to watching 18 rated films, let alone horror films. I'd already vommited my soul out of my eyes watching my uncle play Alien Trilogy on the Sega Saturn (anyone else here ever play on one of those?). So I expected the actual movie it was based on to scare me more than being woken up at night by a glow in the dark Willem Dafoe with Kiss facepaint.
What I got instead was equal parts action, thriller, drama, tragedy, horror and a slight dash of comedy to boot. I may knock James Cameron nowadays for taking 10 years to make his Pocahontus/Dances with Wolves/Fern Gully, with 1 dimensional dumbass humans versus blue, too peaceful to be true, disneyesque aliens movie IN THREEEEEE DEEEEEEE! But back in the 1980s, he had some truely awesome visually pleasing and story driven movies under his belt. The Terminator and The Abyss are very different yet equally entertaining movies, which both push special effects to their limit while still having memorable scenes and relatable characters
The core of the film is obviously Ellen Ripley, played with intense focus by Sigourney Weaver. Her character has evolved from the previous film from that of lone survivor, to pretty much a war veteran. Aliens has often been considered the `other Vietnam movie' of 1986, the other being Platoon. The naive marines venturing into a unfamiliar world to fight an enemy with superior numbers who can hide in the environment. Of course they get decimated due to their intial reliance on technology and ignorance to the threat they face. Ripley is forced to take charge, facing her nightmares she has suffered since the previous film.
The character of Newt is important in the ongoing theme of motherhood the film portrays. In the special edition of the film we learn that Ripley's time in hypersleep has meant her own daughter grew up and died while she was away. This makes her connection to discovering a lone, vunerable little girl even more significant, as they have both lost their family to essentially the same menace. To counter this, the character of the Alien Queen has her own form of motherhood and reacts strongly when her eggs are threatened by Ripley in the film's final act. Ripley is such a great iconic female character because she is strong and able without becoming masculine or using her sexuality as a weapon. She also feels fear and anger, which makes her a more rounded character than just a straight action heroine.
What I always loved about Aliens is the slow build up to the initial reveal of the Aliens themselves. The opening of the film deals with Ripley and her facing the aftermath of the previous installment. This lets the audience reconnect with the character and understand her attitudes and motivations. When she does eventually agree to face her demons and accompany the marines back to LV426, we are then introduced to the majority of the cast.
The marines manage to be cliched but only to the point of being totally entertaining. If they had no witty banter or gung-ho attitudes, it would be disappointing. Of course, having a bad-ass, cigar smoking Sergeant helps too. We have the brother in arms pair of Drake and Vasquez (the latter being the typical hardcore female soldier); the cocky yet jittery Hudson; the rookie Officer Gorman; and the laid back but fiercely competent Corporal Hicks. The rest of the characters aren't given much focus and therefore fall into the role of alien-fodder, but this is to be expected given the nature of the film.
Besides the marines, the two characters of Bishop and Burke are very important for the overall story arc of the franchise. The Weyland-Yutani corporation are increasingly revealed to have desires of obtaining the aliens and harnessing them as biological weapons. Just referred to as `The Company' in the 1st film, they are finally given a name in Aliens and appear to be behind everything apart from the aliens themselves.
In the 1st film, the character of Ash turned out to be an android placed on the mission to ensure the alien wasn't harmed and returned back to the company intact. This leads to Ripley's initial distrust of Bishop, who also happens to be an android. But Bishops ends up being arguably the most selfless character in the film due to his human protection programming. He consistantly helps out and rescues characters in the 2nd half of the film, earning Ripley's trust.
On the other hand the character of Burke is initally shown to be very supportive of Ripley, defending her at the tribunal and helping her find information on her daughter. Also he promises the marines are being sent to destroy the aliens, not to bring them back. This promise he breaks of course when his true intentions are revealed. The audience loses all sympathy for him when his plan to impregnate Ripley and Newt with chestbursters and smuggle them back to earth backfires. He was also the one who sent the first salvage team to the alien ship which triggered the entire incident at the colony. Having a human antagonist reminds the audience that while the aliens are horrible monsters, people always have the capacity to be much more evil.
Bring the topic back to the pacing of the film, once the aliens are revealed, the film goes full throttle. With tense scenes followed by intense action, the film allows the audience to catch its breath in order to build up the next explosive scare or fight. Once the marines are all but put out of commission, Ripley is left alone to rescue Newt from the aliens' hive. The audience knows that this is last place anyone would want to be, yet Ripley knows she can't leave Newt to such a terrible fate, especially after already losing her own daughter. Thus begins Ripley's crowning moment of awesome. Her one-woman army trek down to the aliens's hive, her rescue of Newt, her decimation of the egg chamber, all the way to her pick up by Bishop and her rematch with the Queen on board the Sulaco. This sealed Ripley as an iconic character, not only for heroines but for sci-fi/action heroes in general.
This lookback cannot be complete without mentioning the groundbreak visual effects created with a mix of minitures, editing, matte paintings, high-tech puppetry (courtesy of Stan Winston and his studio), lighting and camerawork. James Cameron managed to craft all these together to create visuals that still look good today, and not a bit of CGI in sight. That one shot of the aliens crawling upside down above the ceiling panels, still gives me the creeps today. Even though I know its just some guys in rubber suits crawling on the floor, my brain cannot conceive that it is anything but a tide of Xenomorphs arriving to drag me into a vent. The art design of the colony and the Sulaco spaceship have that low-tech, grungy, believable atmosphere that the original film pioneered. The bio-mechanical design of the aliens and their environment still carries on H.R Gigers creepy vision. The designs of the weapons and armour of the marines manages to evoke science fiction yet still feels familiar to anyone who has seen any footage of American soldiers in World War 2 to the Vietnam era.
The sound design in this film is beyond superb. The iconic sounds of the pulse rifles still gives me tingles today. Also, that motion tracker sounds plagues my very soul, how did they manage to make beeping so damn terrifying?! Even the sounds of the doors opening and closing has this low-tech and gutteral noise to it. As if everything needs mantinence and is somehow aiding the aliens and their ability to blend into the environment. Atmosphere in horror is key and this film has buckets of it. Special mention also has to go to James Horner's musical score. It is some points eerie and beautiful and in other places nerve wracking and intense. He manages to create music that subtly works its way into the mood of each scene, to the point where you don't obviously notice it, but its there, working inside your brain. Also, that music in the airlock climax has been used sooooooo many times since, especially in movie trailers. The film also knows when it's best to use no music, think back to the scenes involving the motion trackers and you'll hear what I mean.
Well to sum this up I suppose I should tell everyone to go watch the Special Edition right now, it adds important back story on Ripley as well as some cool scenes involving sentry guns and lots of aliens exploding. I want to say thanks also to Jonny Copeland for that awesome night where we watched Aliens on laserdisk on his projector. Was the closest I'll get to seeing Aliens on the big screen unless I manage to find a magical showing someday. Now Gearbox just need to hurry up and finish their Aliens: Colonial Marines game already.
Thanks for reading Jocketeers, and remember "Stay frosty marines!"
Aliens is property of 20th Century Fox
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