Aliens (1986): James Cameron gives the Alien franchise a muscular, action makeover to spectacular results

Chad’s Grade: A

The art of the movie sequel is a tricky business. Especially when you’re following up on a groundbreaking and influential film. For every Godfather Part II and The Empire Strikes Back, there’s a Jaws: The Revenge or Escape from L.A. So, one can forgive Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill, the producers of the original Alien for treading cautiously and waiting seven years to produce a sequel to their smash science fiction hit.

And Alien was ripe for a sequel since it ended on an ambiguous note. The fate of Ripley and her cat Jonesy was left uncertain, not to mention an alien ship full of thousands of eggs that only the nefarious Weyland-Yutani corporation knows about. It’s meaty material for a sequel, and the producers were lucky to sign James Cameron to write and direct the next entry, simply titled Aliens. 

Even more impressive, the producers signed Cameron before he finished his second film, The Terminator, hiring the then-budding auteur based on the impressive footage and strong, character-based script. After landing the coveted gig by reportedly writing an “S” after Alien as a dollar sign, Cameron started writing the screenplay as he finished post-production on The Terminator.

Cameron is known to have a magic touch when crafting strong sequels that hit the sweet spot. You must continue the story by making it bigger and bolder while introducing new elements that don’t clash with the franchise formula. It’s a delicate balancing act, something the demanding director nailed in 1991 with Terminator 2: Judgement Day. But Alien wasn’t his creation, and the original, directed by Ridley Scott, was a moody haunted house feature with gothic overtones. By comparison, Cameron approached the sequel by playing to his strengths, giving the franchise a muscular action makeover.

The sequel starts with a salvage ship discovering the Nostromo’s ill-fated shuttle carrying Ripley and her beloved cat Jonesy in hypersleep. Once awakened, she’s informed by Weyland Yutani exec Carter Burke (a wonderfully slimy Paul Reiser) that she was in cryo sleep for 57 years. Things don’t get much better when Ripley faces the Weyland Yutani board of directors, who dismiss her alien story and are none-too-happy that she destroyed their expensive ship and payload. The former pilot finds herself grounded, working at a loading dock, and forced to see a psychiatrist.

Sigourney Weaver really shines in these early scenes as this is where Ripley becomes Ripley. The Rip Van Winkle-style plot twist is compelling, essentially setting up Ripley as a trauma survivor, reliving the terror of the alien in PTSD-induced nightmares. Soon, she is contacted by Carter when the company loses contact with one of their off-world colonies on the moon, LV-426. The same moon where that alien ship full of eggs resides. The plan is to send a squad of highly trained marines to investigate, and they want Ripley as an advisor. At first, Ripley refuses, overcome with fear of possibly reliving her nightmare. But she reluctantly agrees on the condition that the mission is to wipe the alien species out.

The tagline of Aliens was “This time, It’s War,” and that promise was fulfilled when the Marines made their appearance. If the first Alien was “truckers in space,” the sequel was “marines in space.” And the film surrounds Ripley with an ensemble of well-written and interesting characters. We get early appearances by up-and-coming talents like Bill Paxton as the whiny Hudson (his “game over man” line is a classic) and a sexy Jenette Goldstein as warrior woman Vasquez. Michael Biehn is a smoldering Corporal Hicks who flirts up a storm with Ripley, giving her a potential love interest. And not to be outshined is Lance Henriksen as the android Bishop, a character Ripley takes some time to warm up to due to the first film’s events.

One of the standout features of the sequel is the marine’s cool-as-hell weaponry and arsenal. From the steadicam-mounted machine guns to the sleek steel tank and a drop ship armed with dozens of missiles, the movie gives us an ominous view of a corporate-backed military. Even the heart monitors and body cameras of each company “asset” became prophetic of today’s police bodycams. You can feel Cameron pulling from Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers as inspiration. An ironic twist since Aliens heavily influenced the look of that novel’s 1997 film adaption. Yes, 37 years later, some of this tech looks dated, but it’s still highly entertaining to watch. Especially when Ripley straps into a power loader early in the film, a crucial plot point that pays dividends during the big finale.

When the Marines make their first sweep of the seemingly abandoned colony, Cameron skillfully slows the pace of the picture to build tension. It’s here that the film resembles the original Alien with slow tracking shots recalling the first film’s haunted house vibe. We also get the sequel’s riskiest gamble with the discovery of Newt, a 10-year-old girl who has survived the alien’s carnage by hiding in the base’s air vents. Thankfully, child actress Carrie Henn avoids the “precocious” kid syndrome giving a darkly layered and haunting performance. The surrogate mother-daughter bond Newt forms with Ripley is sweet and heartfelt, providing the hi-concept actioner with a much-needed emotional core.

But the movie switches gears when the Marines wander into a fully active and grotesque alien hive lined with mutilated bodies from those nasty chest bursters. When dozens of aliens leap from the resin-stained walls, the hi propulsive action comes fast and furious. Cameron put to rest that he was a one-hit-wonder director with these large-scale sequences full of marines unleashing their weapons with wild abandon. But those fired bullets have consequences with the creature’s acid blood that wreaks havoc on the highly trained soldiers. The famous H.R. Giger alien designs were updated with a sleeker, meaner look, and these aliens are fast and quick that leap from any direction.

And the film doesn’t lose any momentum as Ripley and the other survivors are put through the wringer with a variety of action beats. There’s a terrifying sequence of Newt and Ripley trapped in a medical bay with two eager face-huggers scurrying around. Or the big finale when Ripley taps her inner “Rambo” and straps on an arsenal of weapons to rescue Newt from the alien hive. Here, Cameron pulls his ace card and introduces the mammoth Alien queen, a wildly designed creature with a gooey sack responsible for laying those gross eggs. The sequence cleverly visualizes the film’s central conflict: two mothers protecting their young. Especially when Ripley climbs into the power loader to give the Queen a beat down, saying her iconic line with feminist rage, “Get away from her, you Bitch!” It’s a rare movie moment where audiences erupt into cheers and applause.

As a writer, Cameron receives much-underhanded criticism, especially his sometimes-clunky dialogue. But his screenplay for Aliens, co-plotted with franchise producers Giler and Hill, is solid and sharp. He perfectly captures the cadence of his profanity-laced marines while giving Ripley extra layers of complexity. Cameron skillfully mixes emotional character beats during the film’s intense pyrotechnics with Ripley front and center. It’s a sharp contrast with the original Alien,where Ridley Scott treated his ensemble with a clinical coldness.

And Cameron may have done too good of a job wrapping up the sequel. At the film’s end, Ripley sweetly tells Newt they can “dream again” before lying down in cryosleep. Our heroine faced her greatest fear and conquered the alien, gaining an adopted daughter and a hunky marine boyfriend in the process. It’s such a beautiful end to Ripley’s story that Cameron inadvertently boxed the franchise into a corner. One wishes the producers would continue the Alien saga with a new set of characters. But as we will see with Alien 3, they would resurrect Ripley once again with disastrous results.

Aliens became a huge money-making hit during the summer of 1986, becoming one of the most commercially and critically hailed sequels of all time. Sigourney Weaver even received an Oscar nomination for best actress, a rarity for a science fiction film. James Cameron came into his own as a blockbuster filmmaker, and his many large-scale hits like Terminator 2: Judgement Day and The Abyss would influence the look and tone of the 90’s era action film. This would be the franchise’s high point, as the rest of the series produced wildly uneven movies that played to diminishing returns.

The Director’s Cut

If there is any filmmaker that doesn’t mind cutting his films down to the bone, it’s James Cameron. The director notoriously butchered his underwater epic The Abyss, so much so that he lost the film’s thematic core. Even his acclaimed sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day, had several cool sequences excised that made for a cleaner pace but a less complex film.

Aliens was no different, with nearly 15 minutes removed for the theatrical release, as producers wanted the run time to be just over 2 hours. Many of the trims are small bits of dialogue that shorten scenes. There’s much more flirtatious energy between Hicks and Ripley, including a sweet, emotional beat where they share each other’s first names (his is Duane, hers is Ellen). And Hudson had way more whiny dialogue that was thankfully removed.

But I was gobsmacked that Cameron cut a short scene that revealed Ripley had a ten-year-old daughter that aged up and died of cancer during her 57-year cryosleep. The information is given to her by Burke just before she faces the Weyland Yutani board. It’s a heartbreaking moment that is wonderfully acted by Weaver and helps explain Ripley’s immediate motherly connection with Newt. Not to mention her rush to save Newt from the alien hive during the climatic finale.

The longest section removed was a peek at the Hadley’s Hope base, populated by 158 colonists before the alien infestation. It’s here that Newt is first introduced, as her brother and parents are making their rounds in a rover, where they discover the alien ship from the first film. Of course, the parents go inside to investigate, telling the two children to stay in the rover. Cut to a few hours later, where the mom reappears, calling for help as the dad has a face-hugger attached. While it’s fun to see a bustling base full of colonists, cutting the sequence ramps up the creep factor later when the Marines make their sweep.

Also cool is a few short scenes of Hicks setting up a sentry gun perimeter after the survivors seal up in the medical wing. There are several tense moments of the machine guns firing at a group of rushing aliens as Hicks and the others watch the ammo drain to just ten rounds. As the creatures retreat, Hicks dryly states, “Next time they come up and knock.”

I can see why Cameron cut the colony and sentry sequences, but he should have kept the Ripley daughter reveal. Still, they are fascinating to watch, and thankfully, these scenes have been restored on most video releases of the film, including the amazing Alien Quadrilogy Blu-Ray/DVD set, where the director personally oversaw a digital restoration of the aging film print, giving the classic actioner a pristine video and audio upgrade.