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Title : Aliens
Director: James Cameron - Also Wrote (Terminator 2, Abyss)
Cast Members:
 | Sigourney Weaver - Ripley(Ghostbusters 2, Alien) |
| Michael Biehn - Hicks(TombStone, Abyss) |
| Lance Henriksen - Bishop (Terminator, Super Mario Bros) |
| Jenette Goldstein - Vasquez |
| Carrie Henn - Newt |
| Paul Reiser |
| Bill Paxton (TombStone, Weird Science, Predator 2)
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With a slight change in the Title, director and writer James Cameron has created one of
the greatest Sci-Fi films that have graced our eyes.
The first alien directed by Ridley Scott (BladeRunner, Thelma and Louise) was a
claustrophobic and intense thriller, but the sequel has the souped up weapons and the army
of Acidic Blooded Aliens, creating one of the greatest roller coaster rides of a film in
years.
What makes Aliens so good, is its realism. We have techonology which is
believable and a situation which might just happen in the future (Hopefully not)
Ij the cast we have Cameron Faves, Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton (Titanic, Weird
Science)
ALIENS is a sequel to the very effective 1979 film, Alien, but it tells a
self-contained story that begins fifty-seven years after the previous story ended. The
first time around, you may recall, Sigourney Weaver and a shipload of her fellow space
voyagers were exploring a newly discovered planet when they found an abandoned spaceship.
Surviving in the ship was an alien life-form that seemed to consist primarily of teeth.
The aliens were pure malevolence; their only function was to attack and eat anything that
was warm and moved. And they incubated their young inside the bodies of their victims.
A new expedition is sent back to the mystery planet. Weaver is on board. She knows what
the aliens are like and thinks the only sane solution is to nuke them from outer space.
But in the meantime, she learns to her horror that a human colony has been established on
the planet and billions of dollars have been invested in it. Now Earth has lost contact
with the colony.
Awards
| Academy award nomination for Best Actress - 1986 - Sigournet Weaver |
| Academy award nomination for Art direction/set direction for Peter Lamont. and Crispain
Sallis |
| Academy award nomination for Film Editing - Ray Lovejoy |
| Nominated for Music Score - James Horner |
| Academy award nomination for Sound |
| Won an Oscar for the Sound Effects Editing - Don Sharpe |
| Won an Oscar for Visual Effects. - Robert Skotak, Stan Winston, John
Ricardson, Suzanne
Benson. |
Trivia
| James Cameron trimmed 17 minutes of scenes, including some back
story, from the original theatrical release. Among the footage cut and later restored to
his special edition director's cut: a scene discussing Ripley's daughter. After being
rescued from her cryogenic nap in space after some 60 years, Ripley sits in a holographic
booth admiring a "garden" from a park bench. Burke appears and Ripley forces him
to tell her what's become of her young daughter. Burke, who tries to dodge the subject by
focusing on the upcoming inquest, finally admits that Ripley's daughter died two years ago
- at the tender age of 67. Ripley laments that she'd promised her she'd be back by the
time she turned 11 |
| In another sequence that was shot, cut from the theatrical release, and restored in the
special edition, we meet Newt's family. Under orders from Burke, Newt's parents drive out
to the alien ship at night. Newt and her brother argue in the backseat about their games
of hide and seek, which establishes that Newt can easily hide in places even the larger
kids cannot reach. When they arrive, her parents enter the ship and disappear for a long
time. Finally, mom returns dragging dad, who has a facehugger attached to his face. Newt
screams into the wind at the sight of the creature, which tightens its tail around dad's
neck at the sound. |
| A tension-building subplot was cut from the film to reduce the
time it took for the aliens to get to Ripley and the surviving cadre of Marines in their
med center sanctuary. Hicks discovers four sentry guns, which he has Hudson and Vasquez
arm and test in the hallways outside of their encampment. When the aliens first try to
infiltrate, they set off the guns and the company watches the countdown on a remote
monitor as they burn through their ammo. The second pair of guns are just a few rounds
from empty when the aliens finally back off and try to find another way in. (They do.) All
of the scenes and dialogue relating to the sentry guns were restored in the special
edition |
| KY Jelly is used for the Alien Saliva |
| Each first initial of each marine - as seen on the vidoe display
screens and on board the Sulaco - is that of the actor playing the character. |
| In an early draft of the script, Bishop claims to have been made by
Cyberdyne, the
company ultimately responsible for the mess in Terminator. |
| Boasting Tardis - like Qualities, the armoured personnel carrier
allows the marines to stand up inside, but they are cleaerly bigger when stood outside, |
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