This Time it's War.

In 1986 the highly anticipated sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 movie masterpiece Alien, was released to a very excited movie going audience. Much to everyone's surprise, many found Aliens to be just as good as its predecessor. Staying true to the universe that Ridley Scott had created, James Cameron took the series in a new direction, away from horror to action.

The Story

Warning the Following text contains spoilers

Fifty-Seven years after the events in Alien, the escape pod from the Nostromo is intercepted by a deep space salvage ship. Inside they discover Ellen Ripley fast asleep in her 'hypersleep' unit. She is taken back to Earth and after an inquiry into why she blew up the Nostromo, she tries to return to a normal life, but her dreams are filled with nightmares about the Alien. She is then contacted by Carter Burke a representative of 'The Company¹,' he informs her that they have lost contact with a colony² setup on LV-426³ and he wants Ripley to go with him and a squad of 'Colonial Marines' to the colony as an advisor. Though initially reluctant Ripley agrees to join the mission and they board the military space ship Sulaco bound for LV-426

The Sulaco pulls into orbit above LV-426, the squad awaken and are briefed on the rescue mission. The team comprised of:

Colonial Marines

• Lieutenant Gorman (William Hope)
• Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews)
• Corporal Dietrich (Cynthia Dale Scott)
• Corporal Ferro (Colette Hiller)
• Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn)
• Private Crowe (Tip Tipping)
• Private Drake (Mark Rolston)
• Private Frost (Ricco Ross)
• Private Hudson (Bill Paxton)
• Private Spunkmeyer (Daniel Kash)
• Private Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein)
• Private Wierzbowski (Trevor Steedman)

Advisors

• Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)
• Carter Burke (Paul Riser)
• Bishop 341-B⁴ (Lance Henriksen)

They board the Dropship and head down to the planet. Landing at the colony, they drive away in the Dropship's Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) and discover that the colony appears to be deserted. The walls and floors are scarred with a battle between the colonists and the Aliens, the Alien's acidic blood melting thorough several floors of the colony. As the Marines search the colony they find a very scarred little girl who calls herself 'Newt⁵' (Carrie Henn) They head for the colony�s command centre, where they use the colony's internal tracking system to look for the colonists, The scanners find the colonists deep within the colony's Atmosphere Processor⁶, leaving Ripley, Newt, Gorman and Burke in the APC, the marines then head into the Processor to rescue the colonists.

Deep within the dark confines of the Atmosphere Processor, the marines discover that the walls are covered in a strange organic structure. Ripley then notices that the marines are right under the cooling system for the colony's nuclear reactor and that any stray bullets punchering the cooling system might cause the reactor to overheat and explode. Reluctantly the marines holster their machine guns and arm themselves with flamethrowers, shotguns and harsh language. Cautiously the marines edge forward and discover the colonists cocooned in the walls. Most of them are already dead, but one the colonist suddenly awakes, begging the marines to kill her. The she starts convulsing and a baby alien⁷ rips through her chest. The marines instantly torch the baby alien with a flamethrower, but it is screams have awoken the alien hive and the walls begin to move.

The aliens launch themselves out of the darkness with astonishing ferocity; the marines are rapidly cut down from every side. Privates Drake and Vasquez defy their cease fire order and open fire with their huge Smartguns, struggling to hold off the alien advance. At the same time Ripley has grabbed the controls of the APC and is racing to the rescue. She pulls up and the few surviving marines climb aboard and Ripley races back to outside of the Atmosphere Processor. But she drives the APC to hard, wrecking the vehicles axles and is forced to stop. They abandon the APC and radio the dropship to come and pick them up, with the plan to 'nuke' the site from orbit, (because it's the only way to be sure) but as the dropship approaches the survivors realise something is wrong. An alien has gotten aboard the dropship and the pilot less craft is now careering out of control, it just misses the survivors and crashes just behind them.

The survivors, now down to Ripley, Newt, Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez, Burke, Bishop and unconscious Gorman. Retreat back to the Command Centre and build barricades in an effort to keep the aliens out. Bishop then draws their attention to huge plumes of steam coming from the Atmosphere Processor, the earlier firefight has ruptured the reactor's cooling system and Bishop estimates that they have about 4 hours before the reactor explodes. Bishop then volunteers to head through a long pipe to the colony's communications dish to contact the Sulaco and bring down the second dropship. Ripley and Newt try and sleep, but there sleep is interrupted by two 'Facehuggers,' Ripley tries to escape when she discovers that the door is locked. She manages to keep the 'Facehuggers' at bay and sets off the fire alarm, bringing Hicks to the rescue who dispatches the 'Facehuggers' with his Pulse Rifle. Ripley realises that the 'Facehugger' attack wasn't an accident. Burke had released the creatures into the room, in the hope of impregnating Ripley and Newt with aliens, so that he could take alien specimens back to the 'Company' and claim a substantial reward. The survivors are arguing about what to do, when suddenly the power cuts out and the alien attack begins.

Emerging through the ceiling and floor the aliens catch the survivors by surprise. Hudson is pulled kicking, screaming and cursing to his death and Burke is cornered whilst trying to escape the others and is ripped apart. The rest of survivors escape through the ventilation tunnels, but Vasquez and Gorman fall behind and destroy themselves with a grenade as the aliens close in around them. The blast throws Newt down a ventilation shaft, Ripley and Hicks give chase, but by the time the get to her, Newt has been dragged away by an alien. Hicks is then badly burned by alien blood and they struggle to get to the surface where Bishop meets them with the second dropship.

Ripley orders Bishop to fly to the Atmosphere Processor, where she believes Newt has been taken. Strapping a Flamethrower and 'Pulse Rifle' together, she heads down into the Processor which is by now dangerously close to meltdown. Deep within the Processor she finds Newt and the Alien Queen. There is a moment�s pause while Ripley and the Queen size each other up. Then Ripley torches the nest with the flamethrower and fires grenades into the Queen's huge egg laying sac. Ripley then runs back up to the landing pad, the Queen gives chase ripping her way through the nest in hot pursuit. Ripley makes it to the landing pad to find the dropship has gone. The Queen catching up with them, Ripley prepares for herself as the meltdown warning counts down. Then suddenly the dropship appears and they fly off back to the Sulaco as the Colony is obliterated as the Atmosphere Processor explodes.

They dock with the Sulaco and Ripley is talking to Bishop, when suddenly the android gets ripped in half and the Alien Queen emerges from the dropship. Ripley runs for the enormous 'Power Loader⁸' climbing aboard she lunges at the Queen, screaming "Get away from her you Bitch." Drawing the Queen towards her and away from Newt. Ripley and the Queen struggle, as Ripley edges themselves towards the airlock. Activating the airlock doors they're blown into space, but the
'Power Loader' catches in the airlock and Ripley manages to clamber back into the Sulaco. Ripley closes the airlock and breathes a sigh of relief as the Queen vanishes into the black abyss of space.

The Making of Aliens

Originally hired just to write the screenplay, Cameron so impressed the 20th Century Fox executives that they not only brought him on as director, but also agreed to wait for him to finish filming The Terminator, before starting production on Aliens. Unfortunately like most of James Cameron's productions, Aliens was beset by problems. The first and possibly the largest was that originally Sigourney Weaver did not want to be the movie, worried about substandard sequels spoiling the prestige of the original film. But after reading James Cameron's script, she decided to join the film being particularly impressed with the mother-daughter bond between Ripley and Newt. Which she felt feminised Ripley, making her seem more real. Cameron ran into numerous problems with cast and crew walking out on the notoriously difficult director. Actor James Remar who was originally to play Hicks left over 'artistic differences,' forcing Cameron to hire Michael Biehn, who he had worked with on The Terminator to replace him⁹. The Director of Photography Dick Bush, was replaced with Adrien Biddle again over 'artistic differences' and the Assistant Director Derek Cracknell, staged a mass walk out over the then untested (The Terminator hadn't been released at this point) James Cameron being Director of such a prestigious film.

Eventually all these 'artistic differences' were sorted out and film production went ahead. Stan Winston and his special effects team worked hard to create alien suits, animatronic aliens of various sizes, a fully mobile 'Facehugger' and the nineteen foot long Alien Queen animatronic puppet. The film's vehicles were mainly models, but the APC was originally a seventy-five ton tow truck used for towing airplanes round airport runways. The 'Power-Loader' was a fibreglass frame that was supported by a stunt man; Sigourney Weaver was then strapped in front of him, leading to a joke among the cast and crew involving a strategically placed balloon. All of the film's weaponry were real guns with modified outer shells. The 'M-41A Pulse Rifle' was originally a Thompson submachine gun with a Franchi SPAS 12 shotgun welded to the bottom, the outer shell was made very angular and sleek with a bullet counter that has become standard on many futuristic weapons in both films and computer games. The M-56A2 Smartgun was once a MG-42 machine gun attached to a Steadicam¹⁰ harness and the M-240A1 Incinerator was built from bits of a M-16 assault rifle with a special effects flamethrower in the middle.

The filming was a grueling, but fun process. The cast members playing the Colonial Marines were sent on two week training with the S.A.S, this was designed to get them in the mind set of soldiers and allow them to get to know each other and create a sense of camradre. They were encouraged to personalise their armour and equipment, to add to their character's personality. The majority of the filming took place either at decommissioned power plant in Acton or in Pinewood studios. The filming in Acton was hampered by the high level of asbestos in the structure, constant checks slowed work, but afterwards it was discovered that the air quality was actually worse at the Pinewood studio. A lot of care and attention was focused during filming; on making sure the then nine year old Carrie Henn¹¹ wasn't traumatised by what she saw whilst performing her role as Newt. In fact Carrie Henn seemed to highly enjoy her experience, Sigourney Weaver took her under her wing, making sure she was always okay, especially during the very tough (and cold) scenes in the Queen's lair.

The final weeks before release were incredibly hectic. The final film had not been completed with special effects shots still uncompleted and Cameron was continually re-editing it. This was a nightmare for the sound and music departments, who needed a finished film to compose too. James Horner the film's composer, was driven spare and was forced to work around the clock to deliver a soundtrack he still isn't entirely happy with.

The Release

Much to the surprise of the fans, Aliens turned out to be at least on par with its predecessor and arguments over which is superior fly across internet forums to this day. Much to 20th Century Fox's delight made massive profits, grossing $10,052,042 in its opening weekend and $85,160,248 over its total run. The film won two Academy Awards for its visual effects and its sound effects and combined with the success of The Terminator to launch the career of James Cameron as one of Hollywood's top action directors.

Aliens: The Director's Cut

In 1992 20th Century Fox released the Director's Cut of Aliens, on Laserdisc and video. This version added seventeen minutes of footage that James Cameron was forced to cut to comply with Fox's demanded running time. The Director's Cut features three major new scenes, the first shows Newt's parents going to explore the alien wreck and Newt's father comes back with a 'Facehugger' attached to his face. The scene also features Carrie Henn's brother Christopher as Newt's brother Tim. The second new scene features Ripley returning to earth to discover that her daughter (that she had left at the age of nine) had recently died at the age of sixty-seven. The picture of Ripley's daughter seen during this scene is actually Sigourney Weaver's mother Elizabeth Ingliss. The final major scene features the aliens attacking the colony's automated defense machine guns, which cut through hundreds of aliens until they run out of ammunition and still the aliens keep coming.