Entry 50.2: Aliens (1986)

Aliens (1986)

Dir: James Cameron

"This time it's war."
 


Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) awakes from hypersleep to discover that 57 years have passed since the events of Alien.  Ripley discovers that her daughter (10 years-old when she shipped out aboard the Nostromo) has died an elderly woman and she's suffering from nightmares and PTSD thanks to her alien encounter.  Adding to her misery, she discovers that the planet on which her crew discovered the derelict ship has been colonized by the sinister Weyland-Yutani corporation.  When (predictably) contact is lost with the colony, Ripley, with nothing left to lose, agrees to accompany a squadron of highly-trained Colonial Marines to the planet (now designated LV-426) to investigate.  Among the Marines are loudmouthed, obnoxious braggart Hudson (Bill Paxton, Weird Science, Near Dark), tough-as-nails Latina Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) and quiet, capable Hicks (Michael Biehn, The Fan, The Terminator), who will become Ripley's strongest ally.  Also along for the ride are android Bishop (Lance Henriksen, The Right Stuff, Pumpkinhead) and Weyland-Yutani representative Burke (Paul Reiser, Diner, Beverly Hills Cop).  They arrive on LV-426 to find the colony severely damaged and deserted save for a lone 8 year-old girl, Newt (Carrie Henn), who's been hiding in the air ducts.  When told that the Marines have advanced weaponry and are there to protect her, she replies "it won't make any difference."  She's right, of course; the colonists did indeed locate the alien derelict and the entire colony has been used as hosts for a whole hive filled with alien creatures.  After a series of conflicts that leave their numbers decimated, the colony's reactor damaged and dangerously close to exploding and reveal that Burke is a traitor hoping to bring back an alien for study by Weyland-Yutani's bio-weapons division, Riply, Bishop, Newt and the wounded Hicks manage to escape the planet, but there is one more challenge to be faced, as Ripley is forced to do battle alone with the monstrous alien queen.

Aliens is one of the all-time great sequels and, while I'm sure he'd disagree, still Cameron's finest hour (with the original Terminator being a close second).  Realizing that maintaining the level of terror and dread created by the first film with the "mystery" of the alien now gone would be a difficult, if not impossible, task, Cameron instead took the film in a completely different direction.  While Scott was inspired by haunted house movies and the dreadful atmosphere of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Cameron instead took his cues from old WWII combat squad movies, as well as the superheroic action movies that were starting to dominate movie houses in the 1980s.  While never traditionally "scary," Cameron's film is exciting as hell; it's a slow-burn, but once it gets going, it never lets up.  Cameron brought back Alien production designer Ron Cobb to maintain visual continuity, but Giger was not asked to come back, with creature effects falling to Stan Winston instead.  While Winston's redesigned, more insect-like alien warriors are nowhere near as terrifying as Giger's monster, his dinosaur-like alien queen is a marvel of visual effects craftsmanship and one of the premiere movie monsters.  The performances are all great, with Paxton (who gets all of the best lines) and Henriksen as particular standouts.  Best of all is Weaver, who is given the opportunity to truly flesh out the character of Ripley and turn her from the "survivor girl" from the first movie into a genuine action heroine (the film is a major landmark in feminist filmmaking, as Ripley was the first true female action star.  Stripped down to a t-shirt and bandolier and toting a combo machine gun/flamethrower, Ripley from the climax of this movie could eat Rambo for breakfast!).  Ripley's connections with Newt and Hicks form the dramatic backbone of the movie; with them, this severely damaged and lost woman is able to find a surrogate family.  That Cameron achieves this without venturing into the schmaltz that would begin creeping into his work after this is doubly impressive.

Aliens is available in two versions: the 137 minute theatrical cut and a 154 minute director's cut prepared by Cameron in 1990.  The theatrical version is a leaner, better-paced film, but it criminally eliminates the sub-plot about Ripley's dead daughter, thus robbing her character of a genuine arc and the film of much of it's underlying drama.  Because of this, seek out the director's cut.