1:29:17 James Cameron said before in an interview that he knew he could never match Ridley Scott in a pure horror like the original Alien film, so he said he leaned into the action bits more because he knows his own strengths in filmmaking. Also the original plan for the franchise after Aliens was to let Scott have Alien 3 and Cameron would have 4 and they would just keep passing the movies back to one another.
Thanks guy’s 😊 awesome reaction. The first time I saw this it scared the heck out of me when the Alien took the elevator 🤯 The scene where they find the woman cocooned was for me the most disturbing part. In the other cut they don’t talk about Ripleys daughter. I hope you watch Terminator 1 and 2. I didn’t watch any of the other Alien movies.
"Mother" in the first movie (Alien) was not AI. It was just the ship's computer. There was no AI in the 70s when the first movie was made. (It had no machine learning abilities.) I just watched both your TH-cam videos (Alien and Aliens). I commented on your Alien video webpage also. Prometheus answers many questions raised in the first two movies. But although it's done well (special effects) it's really stupid. Matter of fact it's so bad, it's good. You may want to watch it for fun. But be prepared to be amazed by it's cinematography and special effects. And be prepared to laugh at how stupid it is.
@@MarcelPilieA concept of AI has existed since very early science fiction. Though I agree Mother isn't a fully fledged AI, she clearly communicates better than most chat-bots did until recently. I'd say Mother is a limited AI; a computer with enhanced analytical abilities, but rightly like you say, no learning process.
Ellen Ripley and Sarah Conner - the two greatest action heroines. Despite the decades that have passed, both have not lost an iota of their popularity! And that says a lot about the quality of the films that "created" them!
@@StargazerFS128 Alien fanboys would argue that Ridley Scott created Ellen Ripley. But I digress. Cameron gave Ripley the life and layers you would expect in any great female character. Ripley and Sarah Connor are up there with Scarlett OHara in my book, thanks to James Cameron.
Fun fact: Carrie Henn who played Newt grew up to become a teacher. In interviews, she has said that parents always find out who she is and they end up sending their kids with DVDs or memorabilia in their backpacks for her to sign😂
my wife is an instructional aid and worked with her at an elementary school. she goes by a married name. i dont think anyone knows who she is. my wife was watching the Aliens documentary while binging the "movies that made us" in netflix and when adult Carrie Henn came on my wife was like "hey i work with her!" my mind exploded.
“The fact this is all practical is insane.” This is why you hear people that grew up on the older stuff complain about a lot of movies today and the crappy CGI effects. You just can’t beat good practical effects. It’s impressive and believable. This movie is approaching its 40th anniversary. Even movies before this one are still mind blowing. I understand computer effects can have a place but they rely on it for everything now. I especially hate computer effects in horror.
It's worth noting that there are crap practical effect too. I always try to bring this up that just because effects are done practically, in-camera, doesn't automatically make them better than digital effects. There have also been amazing digital effects in the past too, which have allowed film makers to do things that would have been virtually impossible to do practically. Both Digital and Practical effects take skill and effort to make work and neither is inherently superior to the other in my opinion. That all said, the effects in this movie are amazing do indeed still stand up nearly 40 years later, so big round of applause to all the hard working people who made them happen.
I feel it’s always a “use the right tool for the job” choice. Practical effects can be amazing but so can digital depending on what you need. The “problem” with digital usually is not digital itself it’s dumb directors and producers who don’t know the amount of work needed and think everyone can be fixed in post-production and never give the effects team enough time to actually do the job right. Directors who know the limits of what can be done in the time allowed and when to use practical or digital make some amazing-looking stuff
@@weldonwin thank you People just cherry pick the good and bad bad out of practical effects and cgi respectively and say that practical is better. BOTH can be good and bad, it depends on the effort the producers decide to put in
The Alien Queen, a masterpiece of cinematic engineering, 3 man operate it and it is real, on screen effect, so it will never age !! That whole sequence vs the loader is just iconic !
@@SubterrelProspector Ni but it's an extremely good one, it's not janky like the Rancor is Return of the Jedi. It's top tier and because it's real, it has weight and presence, so it's an effect that will age well !
@@larsoliver656 Yes, and he was gone, kaput, nada. I guess one can say he killed himself since he asked Ripley to do it. In any case, he wasn't killed by a xenomorph which was the overall point
The "Xeno in the water" is LEGENDARY in the special effects industry. So much so, that when it came time to consider this movies for Oscars in special effects, they ONLY provided the clip of the Xeno coming out of the water for consideration of the award..... needless to say, they WON the Oscar for special effects that year.
Should have won other awards and the Xenomorph rising from the water isn’t even the best effect in the whole movie. It’s wild to me how much science fiction gets shit on for awards. Still to this day even.
The colony had been there for twenty years. It wasn't until Ripley was rescued that Burke found out about the Xenomorphs, and sent a message to the colony.
Yes, but what never made sense was why the company treats Ripley's story like she's literally insane. It was the company that sent the orders in the first movie to save the alien, and let the crew die. How does the company pretend to know nothing of this in Aliens?
@@GK-yi4xvprobably because the higher ups died a long time ago and hid the records. The inquiry board isn’t actually weyland yutani but government and commerce officials judging Ripley if she was insane or a criminal.
@@GK-yi4xv The simplest explanation would be lost knowledge, something not uncommon in large corporations. We assume due to Ash being a last minute replacement that the company was already aware of the signal, so they were being very patient and very quiet about investigating, willing to wait for the Nostromo to be on it's way back to Earth before investigating. This implies that only a small number of people knew, and when the Nostromo went missing, they'd have kept quiet in order to avoid implicating themselves. After 57 years, those responsible would have retired long ago and are probably dead.
You said it yourself, they pretended not to know, because it was in the best interests of the company and the executives. The company blamed the ship loss on a rogue employee, preserving it's stock price, profit margins, executive bonuses etc. The records of any orders to the android would have been long buried, or destroyed, and most of the executives who issued the orders would have been retired, or dead, after 57 years.
@@GK-yi4xv I thought it was a standing order for all vessels, if they encounter some sort of alien it must be retrieved, all other considerations secondary.
It's hard to believe Alien was made in 1979, and Aliens in 1986, these films look so incredible, especially on Blu-Ray! The sets, the lighting, everything is so cool in these films!
I think sometimes these old movies look so good because they had to, there was no ”we’ll fix it in post”. If it didn’t look spectacular in the camera they just had to try harder before shooting.
@@hackapumpYeah, no. Those were not all in-camera effects. After _Star Wars_ and by the late-80s/early-90s, analog compositing had been developed to a high art, so there actually was a lot done in post.
Respect to the design team with the sets. Props and practical effects. Understand this is close to 40 yrs ago. Scifi Movies like Aliens, Star Wars and Star Trek deserves their props in the creation of vision of the world they create. Believe me, some movies don't hold up with the special effects, like The Last Star Fighter, Close Encounters of the third Kind, Indiana Jones and the Tenple of Doom and other movies you never heard of. This movie has held up extremely well for 1986
It also doesn't hurt that they happened to have been directed by two of the best auteur film makers of the last century working with scripts and special effects and writers and actors at the top of their game. The Alien Queen for instance is a massive animatronic puppet suspended on a crane and had two people stood inside it operating the arms and took a dozen people working in sync to fully puppeteer. (The reason the crest is so unreasonably large is to hide all the cabling.) IIRC It still holds the record for largest puppet on film. After 1& 2 the series goes downhill, no-one knew what to do with it; 3 is for diehard fans only, a brutal a grim affair with one of the most troubled shoots in film history. Its director David Fincher has disowned it. The Assembly Cut is the most coherent cut of the film and therefore the best. It can be enjoyed but be prepared to be disappointed. Alien 4 is a self-referrential dark comedy and best avoided at all costs.
About the visual effects: in 1986, the film's in-camera methods were considered old fashioned and low-tech -- rear projection, foreground hanging miniatures, and simple rod puppets, yet they looked fantastic at the time. Best of all, they look fantastic today.
I think it's *because* they were old fashioned. They'd had time to refine the techniques and get everything looking just right. I've seen a lot of older movies with practical effects that are obviously fake because the budget or mechanics just weren't capable of producing the desired results. It also helps that they stayed firmly within mechanical limits. The Thing, released just four years prior, has some seriously janky effects because they tried to show off the alien's shapeshifting abilities way too much. I still laugh at the bit when one of the guys opens the kennel door and an *obviously* taxidermied wolf is flung across the screen. I keep imagining someone on the crew sitting just off camera holding that thing until he's cued to throw it. Or maybe they'd rigged a catapult to release when the door opened.
Guys. Mother was just the ship's computer in Alien. An advanced computer, sure. But it wasn't an entity planning and manipulating events. As the computer, the instructions for Ash, to recover a specimen, were stored in the computer's storage. The orders were restricted to Ash, but as acting captain, Ripley was able to override the restriction. Kind of like using an Admin password.
1:02:00 She's not picking directions at random. Cameron specifically established in the colony scene the kids used to play in the air ducts, and Newt was the best at it. Which explains why she's the only survivor, why she knows her way around here, and why she's pretty good at evading the queen on the Sulaco.
@@GK-yi4xv Dude, she's trying to remember a maze while being chased by a bunch of aliens. Give her a break. It's still quite different from just "knowing" her way around with no explanation whatsoever, which is what you get in the theatrical version.
My absolute favorite of the entire franchise. What will stick with me forever is the little girl - Newt - in the scene with Ripley. "These people are here to protect you, they're soldiers." to which Newt just replies with a straight stare in her eyes "It won't make any difference". Holy! That sent some shivers down my spine. Then she just looked at Ripley and with this look adds without words to her comment "You know it and I know it."
I loved how they attempted to make it seem as though Burke was a good guy in the beginning, yet ended up being the bad guy - then reversed this with the android Bishop’s character. A masterful double misdirect.😊
Not really. I know there are women (reactors), who though he was a nice guy, but especially guys sees him as a sleazy, untrustworthy guy,from the get go.
There's more to a lot of the characters. Burke turns out to be a sleazebag, Gorman turns out to be a stand up Marine, Hudson is a panicky mess, but ends up being good under fire, etc.
Because of this movie, Sigourney Weaver became the first female action hero ever. And she was nominated for an Oscar.. EDIT: I totally forgot about Pam Grier as Foxy Brown in the 70s.
"First female action hero ever." Not really, I love Ripley and Sigourney Weaver but there were others before her. I say this not to correct anyone but to point out the work of others that are forgotten or sadly overlooked. My first thought goes to Sandahl Bergman who won a Golden Globe for her performance in Conan the Barbarian as Valeria, back in 1982. She was awesome, carving through the villains of the film, saving Schwarzenegger more than once. Ripley is an absolute icon though, probably the first female action hero in the lead role... probably. Was Ripley an 'action hero' in Alien from 1979? That's debatable. More a survivor I think. Still, a legend of cinema.
My thought goes to Princess Leia. In the first few minutes of Star Wars, she has a gun in hand and takes out a stormtrooper. But I will say Ripley put a strong stamp on action heroine in Aliens. What I love about her is that she has her own demons. She's scared to death, but she faces them head on. Such a relatable character.
@@MisoSilly😂 I tried really hard not to mention that 🤔.... insanely ignorant and egotistical take of hers, but I'm glad you did. Made me chuckle. When I first heard that Miss Lawrence was our first female action lead, I had Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton in my head... both looking a tad angry.
As a 33yr Vet & Movie lover, I have always said this is my favorite, AS well most accurate to military style movie i've ever seen. Best watched alone in silence.
"most accurate" Why wouldn't the Lt trust the Sgt to command in the field instead of giving detaied instructions? Or is that the difference between a good and bad officer?
@@donsimpsonshead8809 The Godfather Part 2 is a great movie, no doubt about it. But James Cameron is a master filmmaker and Ridley Scott... he made Robin Hood....
@@donsimpsonshead8809 Yes. That was made when he should know better. He has proven to have great skill like David Lean. But they're not master filmmakers
I feel like Xenomoprh attacks aren't as graphic in this because they actually want to keep the people alive for the nest, whereas in the first movie it feels like the Xenomorph just kills because it's trapped on the ship with them.
Aliens is a good candidate for the best James Cameron movie. In terms of everything, design, character, storytelling, sound design, soundtrack and special effect, it's mostly perfect. It's what people wished Avatar 1 and 2 was but really are not. It's also a good candidate for top 5 or 10 best sequel in all of cinema cause it doesn't take anything from the first movie who is a masterpiece in his own right, but add and explore the universe...The best sequels do that ! Also i feel it influence a lot the idea of the space marine outside of the style of Warhammer 40K. It gives another idea of it.
Actually, James Cameron took a _lot_ from the first movie. There are so many similarities that it's almost unimaginable that nobody picks up on it - that by itself is masterful. Just to name a few from the top of my head, but there are many more: - Panning shots in the very first moments of the movie - Introduction to the crew on the ship is when they're in the cryopods - Ripley 'going back' to find Jonesy and Newt - Not showing the deaths from the alien attacks, but leaving it up to the imagination of the audience - Blowing up the ship/facility doesn't kill the alien because it's on the escape ship - The alien is thrown out of the airlock at the end of the movie James Cameron is a master at _using_ the aspects from the first movie and integrating them organically into the plot - in a smart way. You won't see that he's copying a lot of the first movie, but he certainly does. That's why they're good sequels, because they understand which aspects of the first movie made it such a good movie.
Yeah, James Cameron really should've taken a long hard think about *why* so many people were rooting for the guy hitting all the villain boxes of the last forty years.
Still though compared to other modern movies Avatar 1 and 2 are still very good and the box office proves it, and 3rd movie will most likely make boatload of money too. He still knows how to tell a story even if it is a simple and clicheed one and knows special effects too
Fun fact, I had a cat and I called him Jonesy, as I was watching Alien on VHS when a neighbour knocked on my door and asked if I wanted a kitten. He lived for 18 years, died about 5 years ago. I miss ya Jonesy!
The part of the queen’s body used to lay the eggs is called an ovipositor. It’s what egg laying amphibians such as newts, and insects like wasps use to deposit eggs in a nest. The tarantula hawk wasp actually has a life cycle similar to that of the xenomorph depicted in the film. They actually capture tarantulas and impregnate them with an egg, which then bursts out of the tarantula and feeds on its remains.
I'll never forget the dawning realisation to the "roof" scene, the tracker seemingly malfunctioning, watching it at 2am one random summer night on TV, never have I felt so transported in a film, peerless.
@1:02:50 *"That's the most fun slide ever... for about 10 seconds."* Fun fact; that's exactly what Carrie Henn, who played Newt, thought as well. She kept deliberately messing up the scene, so that she could get to go down the slide again and again. Finally, Cameron had to promise her that if she got the scene right, she could then play on it as much as she liked.
1) Burke only sent the colonists to investigate the area, AFTER Ripley had told people about it during her interrogation. Before that the colonists lived there oblivious to the alien ship with xenomorph eggs. Essentially it only happened because of Ripley accidentally telling him before she knew about the "Shake and Bake's" colony existence. 2) It is about 9 weeks between Newt's father being facehugged and the arrival of Ripley and the marines on LV-426 (although the "final stand of the colonists" takes place only a few days before they arrive... which is why there are still colonists alive with chest bursters unhatched). However, this is how the Xenomorphs had time to create the massive "secreted resin" hive under the cooling tower that the marines first get slaughtered in. 3) The photo of Ripley's daughter at the beginning of the movie is actually her real life mother. The sound of the xenomorphs "screams" is the sound of an elephant trumpeting but reversed (and with the pitch slightly tweaked). Sigourney Weaver was adamant not to have Ripley ever use or fire a gun in this movie (she greatly dislikes guns in real life), however Cameron finally managed to convince her to do it for the final sequence... the rest is history. 4) Hudson's character breaks the typical "jock soldier trope" of horror movies by actually having a full character arc. At first he is a super cocky braggart. Then when faced with a real enemy he becomes the complete coward he truly always was. Gradually he flip flops between trying to be a good soldier genuinely trying to help and giving into the hopelessness of the situation. But finally at the end when the chips are fully down he finally becomes the "ultimate badass" he used to believe he was but for real... fearless right on the frontline facing down the enemy and dying a heroic soldiers death for his teammates. 5) Aliens is the peak of this ,movie franchise as none of the following movies manage to reach the same heights unfortunately. But Alien 3 I think is still underrated. Lots of fans hated it but it had some really good new ideas in it that does expand the alien lore in some good ways. However, WARNING SEMI-SPOILERY it does completely ruin the "happy ending" of Aliens 2 almost immediately (which admittedly sucks and is why so many fans got so angry). Aliens 4 has a few "cool for cool's sake scenes" (which a few are not all bad) and 1 actually decent concept idea regarding Ripley which had more potential than unfortunately this move managed to pull off... but it is mostly just mindless "meh". Prometheus and Alien Covenant are... pretentious to say the least. Certainly very pretty to look at, but most of the characters are reliably idiots (making some insanely stupid decisions) and not super likable overall. I would not say these movies were totally garbage... just disappointing. And when analysed too closely, make no sense regarding the timeline of the Ripley movies. Aliens Vs Predator 1 is ok (because it ripped off a lot of its best ideas from a decent comic book) but they messed up badly regarding the xenomorph established lore. AVP 2 is just completely awful plot wise (Iike a tacky teen horror flick with xenomorphs and predators) but does have one of my personal favorite Predator character even if it is utilised terribly in a terrible movie. 6) The "Alien Isolation" game which came out a few years back... is about Ripley's 11 year old daughter Amanda (but as a young adult) and her trying to find out what happened to her mother following the disappearance of the Nostromo (Ellen is obviously in stasis floating out in space during this time). In doing so she encounters the Xenomorphs just like her mother did. This game is a genuinely great "sequel" and even manages to fill in a few plot holes (like for example, why the alien ship on LV-426 no longer has the signal activated that the Nostromo first picked up and therefore why when the colonists arrived there they didn't hear it... as Ripley's crew never actually turned this signal off in the Alien 1 movie). It is actually a really great game with a lot of effort and thought put into its plot by the game designers.
Terminator & T2 are must watch. As companion to the Alien movies Predator 1 & 2 are necessary watching if you continue. You'll see Bill Paxton (Hudson) make an appearance in the other 2 franchises as well even though it's only a brief appearance in Terminator. When the actor who played Burke took his mother to see this movie she looked at him at the end and basically told him "You deserved to die." 😂😂😂
Ridley Scott says the original theatrical cut of Alien is exactly what he wanted it to be, and is already the definitive version. He calls the director's cut a new look at the film, but it's meant for people who've already seen Alien. It is actually shorter, too. For Aliens, James Cameron has always said the special edition is the definitive version. That's why people told you to watch the theatrical version of Alien and this version of Aliens.
Most of the extra scenes are good, and add more greatness to a great movie. With one glaring exception: the entire sequence showing the colonists encountering the aliens. That was a mistake. It lessens the suspense of the marines searching for the colonists, and their shock at stumbling onto Newt, and then the dead colonists.
@@GK-yi4xv I actually like that because it's actually says some higher-up wanted to actually go to where the ship actually was. So if wasn't for Burke then the whole thing wouldn't have happened but yeah I know some people don't like that because it of what you wrote
The only thing I think the director's cut of Alien adds is an explanation as to why Ripley's nose is bleeding. Other than that, I don't think anything else was necessary to include.
You're correct. Switching to the colonists violates the POV, which is from Ripley & the Marines' perspective, and it works better if you discover the colony with them. And I mean, does anyone *really* need to see exactly how the colonists discovered the xenomorphs? You might as well film their entire story right up until the marines arrive, at that point.
In a deleted scene, When rescuing Newt. Ripley encounters Burke in the alien nest, who already has an Alien inside him. Ripley hands him a grenade before continuing her search for Newt. This originally the explosion that forces them to detour in to the Queen's lair. It was cut because not enough time had passed for Burke to be impregnated and fully conscious.
Actually its not so much an android-redemption arc as it is one of many arcs that Ripley goes through. She learns to accept, tolerate and even trust androids, specifically Bishop. That shows how good of a person Ripley is
@@patronus5855 Right? And that's one reason why I think Aliens is a better movie than Alien. The characters in Alien are so wooden and simple. They exist to look good, say a few good lines and then die. They're like higher grade victims in slasher films.
Dallas I liked. He was a Captain that did things and took the risks to lead and not cowardly have some one else take the risks. Parker came around too, instead of running he tried to save Lambert even though they both died. @@LukeLovesRose
@@patronus5855 They're likable but Dallas doesnt exactly have a character arc to watch the movie for. Parker grows to understand the gravity of the situation. That's not much of an arc. It was never suggested that either of these admirable men were going to p***y out. Hudson on the other hand has three arcs you can watch Aliens to enjoy. He goes from being the biggest wisea** on the team to being the biggest coward on the team to redeeming himself in the most bad**s way... before he dies unfortunately
Two minor details about the film. When Ripley is shown a picture of her daughter, it is actually a picture of Sigourney Weavers mother. Still keeping it in the family, so to speak. Second, the transporter that the Marines and Ripley got into on the Sulaco, was actually an old decommissioned airport plane tug, so from the outside it looked good at least. The interior was a studio set.
I had someone jump on me on another channel for saying the same thing. Ironically they actually predicted like two of the future plots during the reaction, lol.
I wish they'd have made the Alien: Earth War comics into movies. Way better in every way. Great continuation of the story and the characters. If you're not familiar with them check out the channel Alien Theory. The guy does great narrations of the comics and shows the pics/art from them. 🖖
The dark horse comic sequels were great it's a shame they only used a few comic elements in the later movie sequels (like the crazy general training the aliens with fire etc) in alien resurrection
@IntheeyesofMorbo "Music of the Spears" is the story you are referring to. The Dark Horse comics were all made into paperback novels. I have most of them. Hard to find now, but worth seeking out. ... The alternative canon of the comics is 100% superior in every way.
I agree totally. I did not see the first movie in the theater - not until VHS years later, but I did see this one theatrically. I also saw Alien3 in the theater but completely checked out after the first few minutes. Sure, it has it's own thing about it, but as a continuation of the story from the first two? No. Alien and Aliens is all there is.
Omg when Corey goes on a toilet break and Cojo downs that powder stuff and holds it in his mouth and then coughs and it comes out like smoke....I lost my shit with laughter. Cojo you are sooo funny.
A few bits of trivia - Al Matthews (the cigar-chomping Sgt Apone) was the first black Marine to be meritoriously promoted in Vietnam. ----- Carrie Henn enjoyed the "slide" (3 stories) so much she kept deliberately flubbing her lines. Cameron asked her for one good take, then she would be allowed to play for the rest of the day. ----- Jeanette Goldstein, (Vasquez) thought the movie was about migrant workers. This is the origin of Hudson's "alien/illegal alien" comment. ----- Bill Paxton (Hudson) ad-libbed many of his more memorable lines. ----- There were 25 f-bombs dropped in the movie... 18 from Hudson. He also says "man" 35 times. ----- In the knife scene, Bill Paxton was the only one who didn't know they would put his hand under Lance Henriksen's. ----- In the original script, Burke was captured and cocooned. Ripley subsequently finds him and gives him a grenade. That is the cause of the explosion that forces Ripley and Newt into the egg chamber.
And: Michael Biehn wasn't the original Hicks. That was James Remar. There are actually two scenes still in the movie where it's Remar, not Biehn (you don't see his face, so they didn't need to re-shoot). Ironically, Remar was best known before this for his role in The Warriors, where one of his co-stars was fired mid-production for being way too full of himself and demanding to 'be the star' of the movie. Then, Remar got himself fired from this movie by Cameron for being way too full of himself, and expecting to be allowed to party, take drugs, etc, during the production. Also, this was filmed in England, and apparently the tension between the 'loud, arrogant Yank director' (though he's actually Canadian), and the very set-in-their-British-ways production crew got so extreme, Cameron assembled them all together at the end to tell him 'this is the best day of my life. We're finished, so today I get to drive out those gates and never have to see any of you assholes ever again'. Also, four actors in this also appear in the Terminator series (Cameron did seem to have a thing for re-cycling a small group of not-very-well-known actors in several of his movies)
The actors playing the marines did a boot camp prior to filming. Cameron also gave them their gear ahead of filming and told them to personalise it their way, each person. Hence the writing on their chest plates etc. The guy that play the Sarge actually was in the forces so he didn’t actually act much! He used his experience in the part. The woman who plays Vasquez was also the foster mum in Terminator 2. Cameron has a tendency to reuse his fave actors. I love this film as it stands on its own feet as a film. It’s not often sequels are excellent but this is one.
Aliens is one of those very rare occasions when a sequel is as good as if not a little bit better than the first and people like to crap on Alien 3, but its still worth a watch, and if you can get the "assembly cut" its a much better version
That one had so much potential ruined mostly by studio decisions. To the point the main person at the helm abandoned it in post and almost refused to ever speak of it again. haha. The assembly cut is more along the right lines at least
Cubed was OK. I quite like #4… It was so close the Dark Horse comics setup for Earth Hive, sad they never explored the concept of a world wide Alien infection.
@@johankaewberg8162a 100% the whole Earth war concept has been missed by Terminator, Aliens and (maybe not so much) Predator. All 3 should have gone the way of an Earth invasion, especially the Xenomorphs with their planet- ending ways about them.
Ripley is stone cold. When the Sargent and others were stuck she said "forget it they are already dead". But when Nute was stuck "she's alive she alive, we need to save her" 😂😂 She even went back for a cat once...😅
For some context, the theatrical does not have any mention of Ripleys daughter. The scenes with Ripley talking about the daughter with Burke and Newt are edited around it. Also, any scenes of the colonists and Newts family before the aliens do not exist, so the first time you see Newt is the first time Ripley sees her. Any scene that contains the sentry guns are also edited out of the theatrical. I think also the hamster fake out scene and the crew speculating on the queen "ant hive" are also extra. This is one of the rare instances where I feel like every additional scene would've been good for the story.
The scene where Hudson is strutting about in the APC bragging about how bad-ass they all are was an extra scene. And they cut a scene where Ripley encounters Burke again (he's stuck to a wall when she's searching for Newt, and begs Ripley to kill him, but she gives him a grenade instead and leaves. You can still see the explosion from off screen.) I like all the extras, because the movie's so great, with the big exception of the sequence where the colonists encounter the aliens. That was a mistake. It lessens the incredible tension of the Marines' search, and our shock at encountering Newt, and the dead colonists.
A lot of stuff was cut from the beginning. The fact that Ripley had a daughter and that whole scene with Newt's parents were cut in the theatrical release. We didn't see the planet at all until they got there. Yes, this one is definitely more of a action movie, but if you think about it, they are very similar. The countdown at the end, the alien surviving the explosion, the airlock...both movies ends the same.
The actress who played newt said she kept messing up the scene where she fell through the fan from the grenade blast when Gorman and Vasquez sacrificed themselves so she could keep sliding down the slide over and over. James Cameron finally caught on and told her to get it together 😊
13-yr-old me loved this movie. 50-yr-old me has this movie *hard coded in my DNA.* "Every meal's a banquet. Every paycheck a fortune. Every formation a parade. I LOVE the Corps!”
I let Apone’s Motivational Speech motivate me out of my bunk in the morning’s during Basic Training in ‘99. 25-y/o me, surrounded by energetic 18-y/os, silently going inside, “I hate this job,” by like the second week.
About ALIEN 3 -- many fans hate it, for obvious reasons that I can understand. If you choose to see it, avoid its chopped-up theatrical cut, but watch, instead, the Assembly Cut, which is much more coherent in its plot, in its portrayal of the characters. On its own terms, the Assembly Cut is an interesting film, even if it might not be, for many viewers, a good Alien film. As for ALIEN RESURRECTION... why bother? It has a good performance by Weaver; it has Brad Dourif (at least for a while) and a few interesting sub-plots, but otherwise, not much to offer.
You are the most levelheaded Alien series fan I’ve seen in a LONG time. I completely agree with your points. As someone whose first exposure to this universe was the “Alien 3” video game (amazing), and then the film, but later went on to understand and watch the first two films (and appreciate that they ARE far better, but in no way detract from my nostalgic love of 3) I VERY much appreciated your comment and opinion.
I think Alien Resurrection is a fun movie. It's just not a good "Alien" movie. If it hadn't use the alien it almost would have been better for the movie, be its own thing. But I also do like campy movies so.... I think for the camp and action and that version of ripley its worth a watch! but I also very much see why its not liked as part of the franchise.
@@miller-joel -- Any film can function on its own terms, if we look beyond its context and study its methods. Plot, pacing, structure, depiction of character, expression of mood, all of these things can work well as techniques, and they can be appraised independently for their own effectiveness. But when we do take into account the context of a film beyond any technical merits, good methods can be overshadowed... which is why I said that, for many people, ALIEN 3 might not work well as an Alien film. That's especially true in the context of ALIENS and its ending.
Someone might’ve already commented this, but regarding Burke (the corporate betrayer dude who acts Very Sus™️ the whole time): There was a scene filmed, but not included, where Ripley - as she’s in the atmosphere processor searching for Newt at the end - stumbles across Burke cocooned to the wall. He begs to be freed. She says nothing, but puts a grenade in one of his hands, and then walks away.
Everyone gives Hudson grief because he's reacting like most of us would in the circumstances. However, he was extremely competent at his job (electronics and computers). He's also not so cowardly as his panicky demeanor suggests; he's a seasoned Marine, a combat veteran. He's just up against something he's not prepared for. He's also the one who rescues Newt in the lab, and he buys everybody else time when they fall out of the ceiling. He went out a badass; give him his propers.
The Xenomorph Queen was a the largest puppet in the history of Hollywood. Operating it required combining rod puppetry (big arms and legs), animatronics (head/jaws) and two stuntmen _inside_ the suit working the smaller arms. On the other hand, the nuclear blast was a dead simple effect. They built a shallow wooden box with a hole in the bottom, then filled it with torn-up cotton balls. Push a lightbulb up through the hole, while turning the dimmer from low to full bright. Boom.
When the actor playing Burke took his mother to the Premiere, she cheered when he was killed off and said he deserved it 😂 Also he’s in stranger things.
1:00:05 ""what will the pistol do!?" The short answer is the same as the pulse rifles. the pistol used by Gorman fires the same ammunition. as the pulse rifles. Worth making it clear that the Aliens are not immune to being shot. They don't have armour that protects them from gunfire
Apparently Carrie Henn playing Newt enjoyed the slide so much she was intentionally blowing takes so she could keep riding it. Cameron promised her if she'd get a solid take in the can he'd make sure she was allowed to play on the slide for as much as she wanted for the rest of the shoot and they both followed through.
MU-TH-UR was simply the ship's operating system. The company behind everything is Weyland-Yutani. However, "The Company" didn't even believe Ripley. Burke took it upon himself to investigate the colony. It wasnt a company decision. He was running an "off the books" operation, and likely calling in favors. ....One can infer that the events in Alien were a similar scenario: Some suit heard about the signal and re-routed an expendable asset to investigate. When the Nostromo disappeared, they covered their tracks and 57 years later, nobody has a clue.
There isn't anything at all telling us who is behind special order 937. However, it's just that. The 937th special order that MU-TH-UR has received. It's common practice for a Captain to receive special orders. In this case, they are classified "Science Officer eyes only." (That the Captain can easily access with a few keystrokes) And a crew change. These are one step above clerical adjustments. The work of a suit, operating off the books. He covered his tracks. The Nostromo was classified as a lost ship. If Weyland-Yutani wanted an Alien and knew they were there, they had 57 years to get one. But they were amazed and in disbelief at Ripley's mere existence. Burke sent the colony a message to check out a grid reference. (From the colony's perspective, an order from "The Company ") That's all he had. An X on a map. Because Ripley (being a flight officer) was able to tell the I.C.C. Inquiry board exactly where it was. ... I can go on and on. There is nothing to suggest Weyland-Yutani as a corporate entity is behind the events of the (first 2) films. There is a fair bit of circumstantial evidence to suggest it is not.
This is one of the few sequels to equal/surpass an already excellent original movie. I would have loved to watch Blake's reaction to these two. Great work guys 👏
There are pictures of Michael Biehn (Hicks) recreating the scene of showing Ripley how to use the rifle with a tween girl in Ripley cosplay at a convention. It is so cute and wholesome.
What’s crazy is that you don’t see a full sized alien until halfway through the film. Imagine going to an Indiana Jones movie and he doesn’t even show up until it’s half over. But Cameron makes it work!
Hey, They didnt send the colonist knowing the aliens were there, they were just randomly colonising the planet but after they found ripley and she told them what they found and no doubt the co-ordinates of the alien ship, burke after knowing then sent a message to the colonists to check it out, and probably to keep it to themselves which they would want to do so they can claim the find, The timeline suggests this because as soon as they find ripley and after the hearing they lose contact with the colony.
This is my favorite movie series. Yes, the first two films are the best but I really love all Alien films. Each one adds something new and fresh to the lore. Hudson & Vasquez are my favorite characters here (after Ripley of course). Also, the Cocoon scene from the first film (Director's Cut version) is a canon. It shows and proves why xenomorphs are "perfect organisms".
No it isn't Ridley Scott has said that original that come out in 1979 is the director's cut. He just put the cocoon scene and for few other things because people want to see those things
@@irina1296 no is has not been in countless novels it's be in only one a that alien was a mutation all the other have just been in documentays and deleted secens. Also because that wasn't in the first one James Cameron was able to make that the eggs come from a queen.
@@mystique666 James Cameron actually ruined the "perfect organism" theory. In Aliens xenomorphs are dependent on their Queen while in the Cocoon scene they really look like perfect organisms! It was already discussed in countless forums
@@irina1296 listen I don't care all I told you was that Ridley Scott said the original 1979 is the true version. So you then tell me that there have been countless novels which have some sort of cocoon sense but there has only been one. Now you tell me there are countless forms which believe James Cameron ruined the alien. Now I bet there are countless forums were people like how James Cameron introduced the queen and they believed flesh out the alien. Now we could go forever with this and let's just agree to disagree and let just finish it how does that sound
What a legendary movie! That soundtrack tho... the music that swells when Bishop rescues Ripley and Newt is some of the best ever made! This movie is pure adrenaline!
This is one of my most favorite movies of all time and i kept seeing these scenes i never saw before and then i realized this is the directors cut so thank you gentlemen for watching this version. I need to brush up on this whole version. Cheers
Bill Paxton is perfect as Hudson :P In old-school Starsiege Tribes multiplayer matches, we used action .wav sound clips (a mod) from Aliens and I used that "Game Over Man!! Game Over!!" as my death sound.
You mentioned liking the waist-mounted heavy machine gun. It was actually made by putting a gun directly on a Steadicam Stabilizer. The power loader that Ripley drives isn't actually fully mechanical. In fact, only the grips on the ends of the arms are. The entire rest of the loader is actually a hollow suit with stuntman John Lees inside. Sigourney Weaver just stands in front of him while he walks around and moves his arms. The two antennas on the top of the loader are the anchor points for the suspension cables that hold the suit upright.
According to legend, after the movie released a bunch of construction and haulage companies started calling Fox, asking where they could buy a Power Loader, thinking maybe it was some kind of prototype that the studio had borrowed for the movie.
Echoing some of the comments below, definitely watch the Assembly cut of Alien 3; or whatever the hell the non-theatrical version is called. You get a bit more context that really improves the experience - but I would love to see your reaction to 3 as well. Also yes, Terminator 1 and 2 are a must, and Predator 1 and 2 ought be on the list!
@@andreabindolini7452 Yeah.... Alien3 doesn't exactly run with the character dynamic set up throughout Aliens, which I think is a big part of why it is disliked by so many fans of the franchise. I still enjoy it, and it's going to be necessary if you plan to continue onwards to Alien: Resurrection.
@@johndracup3428 One can say that Alien 3 is not strictly necessary as a premise to Alien: Resurrection (that, by the way, is even worse)... could be only a bad dream in hypersleep... ;-)
Not everyone agrees with you, the fan base is split. Alien 3 does a good job of wrapping up the series, in my opinion, and I'm British, so the accents don't bother me, unlike a lot of other people. Alien Resurrection was a cash grab, pure and simple, but it was still enjoyable, and had it's moments. @@andreabindolini7452
The xenomorphs are, in fact, a cross between humans in several movies. They take on some characteristics of the host. In these, there is a human skull under a translucent dome, hard to see but visible in the suits the actors wore and the models that were sold. Geiger's (Gee-ger) original artwork shows it.
I know it's in the costume for the first film which Geiger made himself, it's not in the costumes used in this film I think since they made so many and they had to be constructed to a hardier design for shooting the more active scenes.
Funny you should mention that being the "best slide ever." The little girl who played Newt kept messing up takes because she was having so much fun on the slide. Can't remember if it was Mr. Cameron or someone else on the crew who told her that if she got the next take right, she could play on the slide for the rest of the day. She nailed the next take *perfectly.*
As an Isaac Asimov fan, I really really enjoy seeing Bishop explain that his model of Android follows at least one of Asimovs laws of robotics. It also explains his and Ash’s fascination with the Aliens, because as Asimov explains in I,Robot, man made robots eventually see themselves as far superior to humans, even though they will never harm them. So seeing something else far superior to humans gives them almost a kinship. We see this when Bishop calls the facehugger ‘Magnificent’. Another sign is Bishop saying, even though he can’t harm one ‘not bad… for a human.’
It's funny you mentioned Ripley looks like Snow White since Sigourney actually plays the Evil Queen in Snow White: A Tale of Terror. And you said the airduct where Newt slid down looked funny. Actually, the little girl liked sliding it so much she kept messing that scene on purpose just to try it again. Jim Cameron picked up on that and told her she could play there anytime she wanted after the scene ended. Burke's actor took his mom to watch the movie and she cheered when he died. 😅😅😅
There is a deleted scene that isn't shown in any version of the movie. It was filmed though. When Ripley is looking for Newt she comes across Burke cocooned. He's alive and says something like he can feel it inside of him. Ripley just hands him a grenade and presses on. That's why there an explosion a bit later.
I had the chance to see it in a pack theater when it came out (I'm old) without any idea of the plot except the "s" at the end of Aliens. It was one of the most enjoyable ride ever. The gasps of the crowd when the walls started to move full of xenomorphs and the breathtaking confusion of the fight was amazing. Some scenes were quite rare at the time but we take it for granted now, like when the shuttle crash and keeps going towards them in pieces. When Burke buys it, in the elevator, the crowd actually clapped and cheer, also with the "get away from her, you bitch!" It was great and we came out of the theater like electrified. Plus it was the theater version, the first cut, which is like non stops action. I now appreciate the long version, but in the theater, the pace made it hard to breathe ! Great movie. Don't ask me if i like 1 or 2 better, they're both 10 in different moods.
Aliens (1986) is in the Top 3 Best Sequels ever made. The other two are Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). Which is #1, is hard to answer...
I can't remember where I read it and if it's canon or not, but I think the stasis pods work by suspending the bodies autonomic functions while maintaining the health of each individual cell during stasis - basically stopping (or drastically slowing it down) the body in time so a person doesn't age when they are in cryosleep, they are the same age when they wake up as when they went to sleep - while outside time passes as normal. The person is effectively in a very deep sleep, they apparently still dream which is required to maintain mental health. I also read that the maximum time a person can spend in the Weyland-Yutani cryo pods is 65 years after that the body can't survive and starts to breakdown beyond the capacity of the pod to preserve it. So Ripley came close to the max limit and was lucky to get picked up.
"You won't be going in with the troops. I can guarantee your safety."-Gorman. What happens later? She goes in with Troops. If they wanted to guarantee her safety they should have left her in The Sulaco orbiting the planet. And they left the ship empty? No 'b' team in case things went south quick.
"That would be an interesting movie, cross-breeding them..." A man after my own heart. I've personally always wanted to see a xenomorph crossbred with a duck. The duckomorph.
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1:29:17 James Cameron said before in an interview that he knew he could never match Ridley Scott in a pure horror like the original Alien film, so he said he leaned into the action bits more because he knows his own strengths in filmmaking. Also the original plan for the franchise after Aliens was to let Scott have Alien 3 and Cameron would have 4 and they would just keep passing the movies back to one another.
Thanks guy’s 😊 awesome reaction. The first time I saw this it scared the heck out of me when the Alien took the elevator 🤯
The scene where they find the woman cocooned was for me the most disturbing part. In the other cut they don’t talk about Ripleys daughter.
I hope you watch Terminator 1 and 2.
I didn’t watch any of the other Alien movies.
Im in..been xeno hunter And Aliens movie fan since 90s..
"Mother" in the first movie (Alien) was not AI. It was just the ship's computer. There was no AI in the 70s when the first movie was made. (It had no machine learning abilities.)
I just watched both your TH-cam videos (Alien and Aliens). I commented on your Alien video webpage also.
Prometheus answers many questions raised in the first two movies. But although it's done well (special effects) it's really stupid. Matter of fact it's so bad, it's good.
You may want to watch it for fun. But be prepared to be amazed by it's cinematography and special effects. And be prepared to laugh at how stupid it is.
@@MarcelPilieA concept of AI has existed since very early science fiction. Though I agree Mother isn't a fully fledged AI, she clearly communicates better than most chat-bots did until recently. I'd say Mother is a limited AI; a computer with enhanced analytical abilities, but rightly like you say, no learning process.
The actor who played Burke, Paul Reiser, tells the story of when he took his mother to see the film. She cheered when his character was killed. :)
Haha that's amazing. Its tough to play an antagonist. Especially if they're as unlikable/irredeemable as Burke.
- Igli
Truly a character that not even a mother could love. 😄
He took his sister to the premiere as well. She hit him.
So sad.😂
well, it only means that he was freaking good in his role
Ellen Ripley and Sarah Conner - the two greatest action heroines. Despite the decades that have passed, both have not lost an iota of their popularity! And that says a lot about the quality of the films that "created" them!
What do you mean? Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen is the first female action hero in a sci-fi.....
Princess Leia is up there, too. "Someone has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute, fly boy."
In the case of _Aliens_ , I'd say that Sigourney Weaver's performance is what makes this movie great.
An both creations of James Cameron.
@@StargazerFS128 Alien fanboys would argue that Ridley Scott created Ellen Ripley. But I digress. Cameron gave Ripley the life and layers you would expect in any great female character. Ripley and Sarah Connor are up there with Scarlett OHara in my book, thanks to James Cameron.
Fun fact: Carrie Henn who played Newt grew up to become a teacher. In interviews, she has said that parents always find out who she is and they end up sending their kids with DVDs or memorabilia in their backpacks for her to sign😂
my wife is an instructional aid and worked with her at an elementary school. she goes by a married name. i dont think anyone knows who she is. my wife was watching the Aliens documentary while binging the "movies that made us" in netflix and when adult Carrie Henn came on my wife was like "hey i work with her!" my mind exploded.
@@penoyer79Wow, awesome anecdote !!!
Apparently it's the only movie she ever was in.
She teaches mostly at night…. Mostly…
Exact same thing happened to the zombie/ghoul little girl from 1968s Night of the Living dead. She became a popular school teacher.
“The fact this is all practical is insane.”
This is why you hear people that grew up on the older stuff complain about a lot of movies today and the crappy CGI effects. You just can’t beat good practical effects. It’s impressive and believable. This movie is approaching its 40th anniversary. Even movies before this one are still mind blowing. I understand computer effects can have a place but they rely on it for everything now. I especially hate computer effects in horror.
It's worth noting that there are crap practical effect too. I always try to bring this up that just because effects are done practically, in-camera, doesn't automatically make them better than digital effects. There have also been amazing digital effects in the past too, which have allowed film makers to do things that would have been virtually impossible to do practically. Both Digital and Practical effects take skill and effort to make work and neither is inherently superior to the other in my opinion.
That all said, the effects in this movie are amazing do indeed still stand up nearly 40 years later, so big round of applause to all the hard working people who made them happen.
I really like miniatures, it's just feel tangible if well done. That said, i can appreciate Avatar and the wild world created.
I feel it’s always a “use the right tool for the job” choice.
Practical effects can be amazing but so can digital depending on what you need.
The “problem” with digital usually is not digital itself it’s dumb directors and producers who don’t know the amount of work needed and think everyone can be fixed in post-production and never give the effects team enough time to actually do the job right.
Directors who know the limits of what can be done in the time allowed and when to use practical or digital make some amazing-looking stuff
Nothing feels as plastic and real as actual real material. It is still true today.
@@weldonwin thank you
People just cherry pick the good and bad bad out of practical effects and cgi respectively and say that practical is better. BOTH can be good and bad, it depends on the effort the producers decide to put in
The Alien Queen, a masterpiece of cinematic engineering, 3 man operate it and it is real, on screen effect, so it will never age !! That whole sequence vs the loader is just iconic !
When she says “get away from her you bitch” the whole theater went absolutely fucking crazy. I literally jumped up on my seat screaming.
I have the Wayland-Yutani T-Shirt (we build better worlds). Available at Lost Planet, London, the worlds best SF store.
I thought they also used one mini of the queen against the powerloader and out in space.
Was there any doubt that it wasn't a real thing in the frame? I mean it's clearly an animatronic.
@@SubterrelProspector Ni but it's an extremely good one, it's not janky like the Rancor is Return of the Jedi. It's top tier and because it's real, it has weight and presence, so it's an effect that will age well !
"Get away from her you BITCH" - Seen this a hundred times and I still get goose bumps at that line, every single time.
Man it’s such an air punch moment in cinema 💪✊
Personally, I'm a sucker for *"LETS ROOOOOOOOOOCK!!!"* and *"MARINES! WE ARE LEAVING!!!"*
Badass mama bear.
And the audience went wild!
Same, everytime
RIP to Bill Paxton
Only man in Hollywood to be killed by a Terminator, Predator, and Alien/Xenonorph.
Lance Henriksen Terminator Aliens and Aliens vs Predator
and to fight van damme lol@@ПавелПавленко-у3ъ
@@ПавелПавленко-у3ъLance wasn't killed by a Xenomorph. Ripley kills him in Alien 3.
@@Lostmonster Ripley didn't kill him. She just deactivated him.
@@larsoliver656 Yes, and he was gone, kaput, nada. I guess one can say he killed himself since he asked Ripley to do it. In any case, he wasn't killed by a xenomorph which was the overall point
The "Xeno in the water" is LEGENDARY in the special effects industry. So much so, that when it came time to consider this movies for Oscars in special effects, they ONLY provided the clip of the Xeno coming out of the water for consideration of the award..... needless to say, they WON the Oscar for special effects that year.
Should have won other awards and the Xenomorph rising from the water isn’t even the best effect in the whole movie. It’s wild to me how much science fiction gets shit on for awards. Still to this day even.
Pity the film itself was such drag
@@magrathean0still one of the best sequels ever made
@@LifeOfMrRiley Didn't they win the Oscar for best score too ?
The colony had been there for twenty years. It wasn't until Ripley was rescued that Burke found out about the Xenomorphs, and sent a message to the colony.
Yes, but what never made sense was why the company treats Ripley's story like she's literally insane.
It was the company that sent the orders in the first movie to save the alien, and let the crew die.
How does the company pretend to know nothing of this in Aliens?
@@GK-yi4xvprobably because the higher ups died a long time ago and hid the records. The inquiry board isn’t actually weyland yutani but government and commerce officials judging Ripley if she was insane or a criminal.
@@GK-yi4xv The simplest explanation would be lost knowledge, something not uncommon in large corporations. We assume due to Ash being a last minute replacement that the company was already aware of the signal, so they were being very patient and very quiet about investigating, willing to wait for the Nostromo to be on it's way back to Earth before investigating. This implies that only a small number of people knew, and when the Nostromo went missing, they'd have kept quiet in order to avoid implicating themselves. After 57 years, those responsible would have retired long ago and are probably dead.
You said it yourself, they pretended not to know, because it was in the best interests of the company and the executives. The company blamed the ship loss on a rogue employee, preserving it's stock price, profit margins, executive bonuses etc. The records of any orders to the android would have been long buried, or destroyed, and most of the executives who issued the orders would have been retired, or dead, after 57 years.
@@GK-yi4xv I thought it was a standing order for all vessels, if they encounter some sort of alien it must be retrieved, all other considerations secondary.
It's hard to believe Alien was made in 1979, and Aliens in 1986, these films look so incredible, especially on Blu-Ray! The sets, the lighting, everything is so cool in these films!
I think sometimes these old movies look so good because they had to, there was no ”we’ll fix it in post”. If it didn’t look spectacular in the camera they just had to try harder before shooting.
@@hackapumpYeah, no. Those were not all in-camera effects. After _Star Wars_ and by the late-80s/early-90s, analog compositing had been developed to a high art, so there actually was a lot done in post.
Respect to the design team with the sets. Props and practical effects. Understand this is close to 40 yrs ago. Scifi Movies like Aliens, Star Wars and Star Trek deserves their props in the creation of vision of the world they create. Believe me, some movies don't hold up with the special effects, like The Last Star Fighter, Close Encounters of the third Kind, Indiana Jones and the Tenple of Doom and other movies you never heard of. This movie has held up extremely well for 1986
back when film makers had to use elbow grease.
It also doesn't hurt that they happened to have been directed by two of the best auteur film makers of the last century working with scripts and special effects and writers and actors at the top of their game.
The Alien Queen for instance is a massive animatronic puppet suspended on a crane and had two people stood inside it operating the arms and took a dozen people working in sync to fully puppeteer. (The reason the crest is so unreasonably large is to hide all the cabling.) IIRC It still holds the record for largest puppet on film.
After 1& 2 the series goes downhill, no-one knew what to do with it; 3 is for diehard fans only, a brutal a grim affair with one of the most troubled shoots in film history. Its director David Fincher has disowned it. The Assembly Cut is the most coherent cut of the film and therefore the best. It can be enjoyed but be prepared to be disappointed. Alien 4 is a self-referrential dark comedy and best avoided at all costs.
About the visual effects: in 1986, the film's in-camera methods were considered old fashioned and low-tech -- rear projection, foreground hanging miniatures, and simple rod puppets, yet they looked fantastic at the time. Best of all, they look fantastic today.
I think it's *because* they were old fashioned. They'd had time to refine the techniques and get everything looking just right. I've seen a lot of older movies with practical effects that are obviously fake because the budget or mechanics just weren't capable of producing the desired results.
It also helps that they stayed firmly within mechanical limits. The Thing, released just four years prior, has some seriously janky effects because they tried to show off the alien's shapeshifting abilities way too much. I still laugh at the bit when one of the guys opens the kennel door and an *obviously* taxidermied wolf is flung across the screen. I keep imagining someone on the crew sitting just off camera holding that thing until he's cued to throw it. Or maybe they'd rigged a catapult to release when the door opened.
The rear projections always had contrast issues to me, even back in the days, but that would be my only (minor) complaint.
Everyone but Bill Paxton knew they were going to use his hand for the knife trick. That scream was genuine. 😂😂
Guys. Mother was just the ship's computer in Alien. An advanced computer, sure. But it wasn't an entity planning and manipulating events. As the computer, the instructions for Ash, to recover a specimen, were stored in the computer's storage. The orders were restricted to Ash, but as acting captain, Ripley was able to override the restriction. Kind of like using an Admin password.
Sigourney Weaver was nominated for Best Actress for this. Very rare for a sci-fi movie. So well deserved!
1:02:00 She's not picking directions at random. Cameron specifically established in the colony scene the kids used to play in the air ducts, and Newt was the best at it. Which explains why she's the only survivor, why she knows her way around here, and why she's pretty good at evading the queen on the Sulaco.
But she hesitates, then changes her mind on the direction. This wouldn't inspire great confidence in everyone following her.
@@GK-yi4xv Dude, she's trying to remember a maze while being chased by a bunch of aliens. Give her a break. It's still quite different from just "knowing" her way around with no explanation whatsoever, which is what you get in the theatrical version.
@@GK-yi4xv tension can kill switch some people's brain.
@@GK-yi4xv I interpreted it as her knowing several possible routes, and trying to choose between the quickest, the easiest, and the safest.
@@wizardsuth Valid.
My absolute favorite of the entire franchise. What will stick with me forever is the little girl - Newt - in the scene with Ripley. "These people are here to protect you, they're soldiers." to which Newt just replies with a straight stare in her eyes "It won't make any difference". Holy! That sent some shivers down my spine. Then she just looked at Ripley and with this look adds without words to her comment "You know it and I know it."
I loved how they attempted to make it seem as though Burke was a good guy in the beginning, yet ended up being the bad guy - then reversed this with the android Bishop’s character. A masterful double misdirect.😊
Not really. I know there are women (reactors), who though he was a nice guy, but especially guys sees him as a sleazy, untrustworthy guy,from the get go.
There's more to a lot of the characters. Burke turns out to be a sleazebag, Gorman turns out to be a stand up Marine, Hudson is a panicky mess, but ends up being good under fire, etc.
Because of this movie, Sigourney Weaver became the first female action hero ever. And she was nominated for an Oscar.. EDIT: I totally forgot about Pam Grier as Foxy Brown in the 70s.
Sigourney Weaver shouldve totally won
"First female action hero ever." Not really, I love Ripley and Sigourney Weaver but there were others before her. I say this not to correct anyone but to point out the work of others that are forgotten or sadly overlooked. My first thought goes to Sandahl Bergman who won a Golden Globe for her performance in Conan the Barbarian as Valeria, back in 1982. She was awesome, carving through the villains of the film, saving Schwarzenegger more than once. Ripley is an absolute icon though, probably the first female action hero in the lead role... probably. Was Ripley an 'action hero' in Alien from 1979? That's debatable. More a survivor I think. Still, a legend of cinema.
My thought goes to Princess Leia. In the first few minutes of Star Wars, she has a gun in hand and takes out a stormtrooper. But I will say Ripley put a strong stamp on action heroine in Aliens. What I love about her is that she has her own demons. She's scared to death, but she faces them head on. Such a relatable character.
Shhh .. don't tell Jennifer Lawrence that, she claims to be the first strong female lead.
@@MisoSilly😂 I tried really hard not to mention that 🤔.... insanely ignorant and egotistical take of hers, but I'm glad you did. Made me chuckle. When I first heard that Miss Lawrence was our first female action lead, I had Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton in my head... both looking a tad angry.
Ripley is the best, the protector mama we all need in the world today
And people say there are no strong female characters in older sci-fi
As a 33yr Vet & Movie lover, I have always said this is my favorite, AS well most accurate to military style movie i've ever seen. Best watched alone in silence.
"most accurate"
Why wouldn't the Lt trust the Sgt to command in the field instead of giving detaied instructions? Or is that the difference between a good and bad officer?
@JeshuaSquirrel Yeah good officers trust their noncoms, bad officers consistently think they know better and micromanage.
Aliens is arguably the greatest sequel and the greatest sci-fi film ever made
I'd argue that The Godfather II is the greatest sequel and that Alien is the greatest Sci-fi movie ever made.
@@donsimpsonshead8809 Fine. You can think that
@@donsimpsonshead8809 The Godfather Part 2 is a great movie, no doubt about it. But James Cameron is a master filmmaker and Ridley Scott... he made Robin Hood....
@@LukeLovesRose So you pick Ridley Scott's worst movie as an argument? As if Ridley Scott isn't a master filmmaker.
@@donsimpsonshead8809 Yes. That
was made when he should know better. He has proven to have great skill like David Lean. But they're not master filmmakers
I feel like Xenomoprh attacks aren't as graphic in this because they actually want to keep the people alive for the nest, whereas in the first movie it feels like the Xenomorph just kills because it's trapped on the ship with them.
One of the best sequels ever. I’m so happy to see y’all reacting to it!
I love it that people watch what I watched when I was young.
Best sequels of all time:
Aliens
Wrath of Khan
Terminator 2
@@snarflcat6187also Empire Strikes Back
@@snarflcat6187 While nothing you said is wrong in any way, one has to add "The Empire strikes back" to the list
I would add Mad Max II
Aliens is a good candidate for the best James Cameron movie. In terms of everything, design, character, storytelling, sound design, soundtrack and special effect, it's mostly perfect. It's what people wished Avatar 1 and 2 was but really are not. It's also a good candidate for top 5 or 10 best sequel in all of cinema cause it doesn't take anything from the first movie who is a masterpiece in his own right, but add and explore the universe...The best sequels do that ! Also i feel it influence a lot the idea of the space marine outside of the style of Warhammer 40K. It gives another idea of it.
It is, along with Titanic, love or hate.
Actually, James Cameron took a _lot_ from the first movie. There are so many similarities that it's almost unimaginable that nobody picks up on it - that by itself is masterful.
Just to name a few from the top of my head, but there are many more:
- Panning shots in the very first moments of the movie
- Introduction to the crew on the ship is when they're in the cryopods
- Ripley 'going back' to find Jonesy and Newt
- Not showing the deaths from the alien attacks, but leaving it up to the imagination of the audience
- Blowing up the ship/facility doesn't kill the alien because it's on the escape ship
- The alien is thrown out of the airlock at the end of the movie
James Cameron is a master at _using_ the aspects from the first movie and integrating them organically into the plot - in a smart way. You won't see that he's copying a lot of the first movie, but he certainly does. That's why they're good sequels, because they understand which aspects of the first movie made it such a good movie.
Although, I do think it did a lot to influence the Warhammer 40k Cadian shock trooper.
Yeah, James Cameron really should've taken a long hard think about *why* so many people were rooting for the guy hitting all the villain boxes of the last forty years.
Still though compared to other modern movies Avatar 1 and 2 are still very good and the box office proves it, and 3rd movie will most likely make boatload of money too. He still knows how to tell a story even if it is a simple and clicheed one and knows special effects too
Fun fact, I had a cat and I called him Jonesy, as I was watching Alien on VHS when a neighbour knocked on my door and asked if I wanted a kitten. He lived for 18 years, died about 5 years ago. I miss ya Jonesy!
The part of the queen’s body used to lay the eggs is called an ovipositor. It’s what egg laying amphibians such as newts, and insects like wasps use to deposit eggs in a nest. The tarantula hawk wasp actually has a life cycle similar to that of the xenomorph depicted in the film. They actually capture tarantulas and impregnate them with an egg, which then bursts out of the tarantula and feeds on its remains.
I'll never forget the dawning realisation to the "roof" scene, the tracker seemingly malfunctioning, watching it at 2am one random summer night on TV, never have I felt so transported in a film, peerless.
The tough "latina" space Marine is also the curly haired foster mom in Terminator 2.
And the red haired Irish mother in Titanic
The vampire film "Near Dark" has Lance Henrikson, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein. It was directed by James Cameron's then wife, Kathryn Bigelow.
@@Lostmonster Fact. Near Dark was a reunion for them. Also one of my favorite movies.
And also she was the officer in lethal weapon 2 who was killed by the bomb on the pool diving board.
Wow! I never recognized her. I can see it now.
@1:02:50 *"That's the most fun slide ever... for about 10 seconds."*
Fun fact; that's exactly what Carrie Henn, who played Newt, thought as well. She kept deliberately messing up the scene, so that she could get to go down the slide again and again. Finally, Cameron had to promise her that if she got the scene right, she could then play on it as much as she liked.
"Whats the pistol gonna do man?".
Vasquez: hold my smart gun.
1) Burke only sent the colonists to investigate the area, AFTER Ripley had told people about it during her interrogation. Before that the colonists lived there oblivious to the alien ship with xenomorph eggs. Essentially it only happened because of Ripley accidentally telling him before she knew about the "Shake and Bake's" colony existence.
2) It is about 9 weeks between Newt's father being facehugged and the arrival of Ripley and the marines on LV-426 (although the "final stand of the colonists" takes place only a few days before they arrive... which is why there are still colonists alive with chest bursters unhatched). However, this is how the Xenomorphs had time to create the massive "secreted resin" hive under the cooling tower that the marines first get slaughtered in.
3) The photo of Ripley's daughter at the beginning of the movie is actually her real life mother. The sound of the xenomorphs "screams" is the sound of an elephant trumpeting but reversed (and with the pitch slightly tweaked). Sigourney Weaver was adamant not to have Ripley ever use or fire a gun in this movie (she greatly dislikes guns in real life), however Cameron finally managed to convince her to do it for the final sequence... the rest is history.
4) Hudson's character breaks the typical "jock soldier trope" of horror movies by actually having a full character arc. At first he is a super cocky braggart. Then when faced with a real enemy he becomes the complete coward he truly always was. Gradually he flip flops between trying to be a good soldier genuinely trying to help and giving into the hopelessness of the situation. But finally at the end when the chips are fully down he finally becomes the "ultimate badass" he used to believe he was but for real... fearless right on the frontline facing down the enemy and dying a heroic soldiers death for his teammates.
5) Aliens is the peak of this ,movie franchise as none of the following movies manage to reach the same heights unfortunately. But Alien 3 I think is still underrated. Lots of fans hated it but it had some really good new ideas in it that does expand the alien lore in some good ways.
However, WARNING SEMI-SPOILERY it does completely ruin the "happy ending" of Aliens 2 almost immediately (which admittedly sucks and is why so many fans got so angry). Aliens 4 has a few "cool for cool's sake scenes" (which a few are not all bad) and 1 actually decent concept idea regarding Ripley which had more potential than unfortunately this move managed to pull off... but it is mostly just mindless "meh".
Prometheus and Alien Covenant are... pretentious to say the least. Certainly very pretty to look at, but most of the characters are reliably idiots (making some insanely stupid decisions) and not super likable overall. I would not say these movies were totally garbage... just disappointing. And when analysed too closely, make no sense regarding the timeline of the Ripley movies.
Aliens Vs Predator 1 is ok (because it ripped off a lot of its best ideas from a decent comic book) but they messed up badly regarding the xenomorph established lore. AVP 2 is just completely awful plot wise (Iike a tacky teen horror flick with xenomorphs and predators) but does have one of my personal favorite Predator character even if it is utilised terribly in a terrible movie.
6) The "Alien Isolation" game which came out a few years back... is about Ripley's 11 year old daughter Amanda (but as a young adult) and her trying to find out what happened to her mother following the disappearance of the Nostromo (Ellen is obviously in stasis floating out in space during this time). In doing so she encounters the Xenomorphs just like her mother did.
This game is a genuinely great "sequel" and even manages to fill in a few plot holes (like for example, why the alien ship on LV-426 no longer has the signal activated that the Nostromo first picked up and therefore why when the colonists arrived there they didn't hear it... as Ripley's crew never actually turned this signal off in the Alien 1 movie). It is actually a really great game with a lot of effort and thought put into its plot by the game designers.
Terminator & T2 are must watch. As companion to the Alien movies Predator 1 & 2 are necessary watching if you continue. You'll see Bill Paxton (Hudson) make an appearance in the other 2 franchises as well even though it's only a brief appearance in Terminator.
When the actor who played Burke took his mother to see this movie she looked at him at the end and basically told him "You deserved to die." 😂😂😂
Vasquez is also in T2 as Johns mother…
Ridley Scott says the original theatrical cut of Alien is exactly what he wanted it to be, and is already the definitive version. He calls the director's cut a new look at the film, but it's meant for people who've already seen Alien. It is actually shorter, too. For Aliens, James Cameron has always said the special edition is the definitive version. That's why people told you to watch the theatrical version of Alien and this version of Aliens.
Most of the extra scenes are good, and add more greatness to a great movie.
With one glaring exception: the entire sequence showing the colonists encountering the aliens. That was a mistake. It lessens the suspense of the marines searching for the colonists, and their shock at stumbling onto Newt, and then the dead colonists.
@@GK-yi4xv I actually like that because it's actually says some higher-up wanted to actually go to where the ship actually was. So if wasn't for Burke then the whole thing wouldn't have happened but yeah I know some people don't like that because it of what you wrote
Thank you. Yes.
The only thing I think the director's cut of Alien adds is an explanation as to why Ripley's nose is bleeding. Other than that, I don't think anything else was necessary to include.
You're correct. Switching to the colonists violates the POV, which is from Ripley & the Marines' perspective, and it works better if you discover the colony with them.
And I mean, does anyone *really* need to see exactly how the colonists discovered the xenomorphs? You might as well film their entire story right up until the marines arrive, at that point.
The Queen has to separate herself from the 'umbilical cord' to chase Ripley.
1:21:13 to answer that question what the queen uses to lay eggs is called ovipositor something that insects also use
In a deleted scene, When rescuing Newt. Ripley encounters Burke in the alien nest, who already has an Alien inside him. Ripley hands him a grenade before continuing her search for Newt. This originally the explosion that forces them to detour in to the Queen's lair.
It was cut because not enough time had passed for Burke to be impregnated and fully conscious.
Actually its not so much an android-redemption arc as it is one of many arcs that Ripley goes through. She learns to accept, tolerate and even trust androids, specifically Bishop. That shows how good of a person Ripley is
Really everyone got redemption arcs of some sort, except Burke.
@@patronus5855 Right? And that's one reason why I think Aliens is a better movie than Alien. The characters in Alien are so wooden and simple. They exist to look good, say a few good lines and then die. They're like higher grade victims in slasher films.
Dallas I liked. He was a Captain that did things and took the risks to lead and not cowardly have some one else take the risks. Parker came around too, instead of running he tried to save Lambert even though they both died. @@LukeLovesRose
@@patronus5855 They're likable but Dallas doesnt exactly have a character arc to watch the movie for. Parker grows to understand the gravity of the situation. That's not much of an arc. It was never suggested that either of these admirable men were going to p***y out.
Hudson on the other hand has three arcs you can watch Aliens to enjoy. He goes from being the biggest wisea** on the team to being the biggest coward on the team to redeeming himself in the most bad**s way... before he dies unfortunately
Two minor details about the film. When Ripley is shown a picture of her daughter, it is actually a picture of Sigourney Weavers mother. Still keeping it in the family, so to speak. Second, the transporter that the Marines and Ripley got into on the Sulaco, was actually an old decommissioned airport plane tug, so from the outside it looked good at least. The interior was a studio set.
The interesting thing is you could probably make it now off an EV. Motors in the wheels, battery floor and build everything else on top.
There’s only 2 Alien movies. It ends here with Ripley and her found family. FIGHT ME 😂
I had someone jump on me on another channel for saying the same thing. Ironically they actually predicted like two of the future plots during the reaction, lol.
I wish they'd have made the Alien: Earth War comics into movies. Way better in every way. Great continuation of the story and the characters. If you're not familiar with them check out the channel Alien Theory. The guy does great narrations of the comics and shows the pics/art from them. 🖖
The dark horse comic sequels were great it's a shame they only used a few comic elements in the later movie sequels (like the crazy general training the aliens with fire etc) in alien resurrection
@IntheeyesofMorbo "Music of the Spears" is the story you are referring to.
The Dark Horse comics were all made into paperback novels. I have most of them. Hard to find now, but worth seeking out.
...
The alternative canon of the comics is 100% superior in every way.
I agree totally. I did not see the first movie in the theater - not until VHS years later, but I did see this one theatrically. I also saw Alien3 in the theater but completely checked out after the first few minutes. Sure, it has it's own thing about it, but as a continuation of the story from the first two? No. Alien and Aliens is all there is.
Omg when Corey goes on a toilet break and Cojo downs that powder stuff and holds it in his mouth and then coughs and it comes out like smoke....I lost my shit with laughter. Cojo you are sooo funny.
The "egg-laying tube" for the Queen xenomorph (and all insects) is called an ovipositor in technical terms.
34:46 "Our frogs didn't look like this." -- That's probably a good thing.
A few bits of trivia -
Al Matthews (the cigar-chomping Sgt Apone) was the first black Marine to be meritoriously promoted in Vietnam.
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Carrie Henn enjoyed the "slide" (3 stories) so much she kept deliberately flubbing her lines. Cameron asked her for one good take, then she would be allowed to play for the rest of the day.
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Jeanette Goldstein, (Vasquez) thought the movie was about migrant workers. This is the origin of Hudson's "alien/illegal alien" comment.
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Bill Paxton (Hudson) ad-libbed many of his more memorable lines.
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There were 25 f-bombs dropped in the movie... 18 from Hudson. He also says "man" 35 times.
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In the knife scene, Bill Paxton was the only one who didn't know they would put his hand under Lance Henriksen's.
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In the original script, Burke was captured and cocooned. Ripley subsequently finds him and gives him a grenade. That is the cause of the explosion that forces Ripley and Newt into the egg chamber.
And:
Michael Biehn wasn't the original Hicks. That was James Remar. There are actually two scenes still in the movie where it's Remar, not Biehn (you don't see his face, so they didn't need to re-shoot).
Ironically, Remar was best known before this for his role in The Warriors, where one of his co-stars was fired mid-production for being way too full of himself and demanding to 'be the star' of the movie.
Then, Remar got himself fired from this movie by Cameron for being way too full of himself, and expecting to be allowed to party, take drugs, etc, during the production.
Also, this was filmed in England, and apparently the tension between the 'loud, arrogant Yank director' (though he's actually Canadian), and the very set-in-their-British-ways production crew got so extreme, Cameron assembled them all together at the end to tell him 'this is the best day of my life. We're finished, so today I get to drive out those gates and never have to see any of you assholes ever again'.
Also, four actors in this also appear in the Terminator series (Cameron did seem to have a thing for re-cycling a small group of not-very-well-known actors in several of his movies)
The actors playing the marines did a boot camp prior to filming. Cameron also gave them their gear ahead of filming and told them to personalise it their way, each person. Hence the writing on their chest plates etc.
The guy that play the Sarge actually was in the forces so he didn’t actually act much! He used his experience in the part.
The woman who plays Vasquez was also the foster mum in Terminator 2. Cameron has a tendency to reuse his fave actors.
I love this film as it stands on its own feet as a film. It’s not often sequels are excellent but this is one.
Aliens is one of those very rare occasions when a sequel is as good as if not a little bit better than the first and people like to crap on Alien 3, but its still worth a watch, and if you can get the "assembly cut" its a much better version
Alien 3 pissed on all the humanity of the first two films. For that reason alone every copy of it should be burned.
@@OroborusFMA AMEN, FUCK ALIEN 3
That one had so much potential ruined mostly by studio decisions. To the point the main person at the helm abandoned it in post and almost refused to ever speak of it again. haha. The assembly cut is more along the right lines at least
Cubed was OK. I quite like #4… It was so close the Dark Horse comics setup for Earth Hive, sad they never explored the concept of a world wide Alien infection.
@@johankaewberg8162a 100% the whole Earth war concept has been missed by Terminator, Aliens and (maybe not so much) Predator. All 3 should have gone the way of an Earth invasion, especially the Xenomorphs with their planet- ending ways about them.
If Ripley knew her daughter fought Aliens too when she was 26 years old. Bishop is cool. He is a good android.
Ripley is stone cold. When the Sargent and others were stuck she said "forget it they are already dead". But when Nute was stuck "she's alive she alive, we need to save her" 😂😂
She even went back for a cat once...😅
For some context, the theatrical does not have any mention of Ripleys daughter. The scenes with Ripley talking about the daughter with Burke and Newt are edited around it. Also, any scenes of the colonists and Newts family before the aliens do not exist, so the first time you see Newt is the first time Ripley sees her. Any scene that contains the sentry guns are also edited out of the theatrical. I think also the hamster fake out scene and the crew speculating on the queen "ant hive" are also extra.
This is one of the rare instances where I feel like every additional scene would've been good for the story.
The scene where Hudson is strutting about in the APC bragging about how bad-ass they all are was an extra scene.
And they cut a scene where Ripley encounters Burke again (he's stuck to a wall when she's searching for Newt, and begs Ripley to kill him, but she gives him a grenade instead and leaves. You can still see the explosion from off screen.)
I like all the extras, because the movie's so great, with the big exception of the sequence where the colonists encounter the aliens.
That was a mistake. It lessens the incredible tension of the Marines' search, and our shock at encountering Newt, and the dead colonists.
A lot of stuff was cut from the beginning. The fact that Ripley had a daughter and that whole scene with Newt's parents were cut in the theatrical release. We didn't see the planet at all until they got there.
Yes, this one is definitely more of a action movie, but if you think about it, they are very similar. The countdown at the end, the alien surviving the explosion, the airlock...both movies ends the same.
I really like how attentive you guys are. You pick up a lot of the small details! It’s very satisfying to watch.
lol, no they don't.
The actress who played newt said she kept messing up the scene where she fell through the fan from the grenade blast when Gorman and Vasquez sacrificed themselves so she could keep sliding down the slide over and over. James Cameron finally caught on and told her to get it together 😊
13-yr-old me loved this movie.
50-yr-old me has this movie *hard coded in my DNA.*
"Every meal's a banquet. Every paycheck a fortune. Every formation a parade. I LOVE the Corps!”
I let Apone’s Motivational Speech motivate me out of my bunk in the morning’s during Basic Training in ‘99.
25-y/o me, surrounded by energetic 18-y/os, silently going inside, “I hate this job,” by like the second week.
About ALIEN 3 -- many fans hate it, for obvious reasons that I can understand. If you choose to see it, avoid its chopped-up theatrical cut, but watch, instead, the Assembly Cut, which is much more coherent in its plot, in its portrayal of the characters. On its own terms, the Assembly Cut is an interesting film, even if it might not be, for many viewers, a good Alien film. As for ALIEN RESURRECTION... why bother? It has a good performance by Weaver; it has Brad Dourif (at least for a while) and a few interesting sub-plots, but otherwise, not much to offer.
You are the most levelheaded Alien series fan I’ve seen in a LONG time. I completely agree with your points.
As someone whose first exposure to this universe was the “Alien 3” video game (amazing), and then the film, but later went on to understand and watch the first two films (and appreciate that they ARE far better, but in no way detract from my nostalgic love of 3) I VERY much appreciated your comment and opinion.
Just the readdition of Paul McGann's character's story line makes it better. I've said - I may not be a fan of where 3 went but the AC is a good film.
I think Alien Resurrection is a fun movie. It's just not a good "Alien" movie. If it hadn't use the alien it almost would have been better for the movie, be its own thing. But I also do like campy movies so....
I think for the camp and action and that version of ripley its worth a watch! but I also very much see why its not liked as part of the franchise.
There's no such thing as "on its own terms." It's called "alien 3." It has a character named Ripley. It presumes to follow Aliens.
@@miller-joel -- Any film can function on its own terms, if we look beyond its context and study its methods. Plot, pacing, structure, depiction of character, expression of mood, all of these things can work well as techniques, and they can be appraised independently for their own effectiveness. But when we do take into account the context of a film beyond any technical merits, good methods can be overshadowed... which is why I said that, for many people, ALIEN 3 might not work well as an Alien film. That's especially true in the context of ALIENS and its ending.
Someone might’ve already commented this, but regarding Burke (the corporate betrayer dude who acts Very Sus™️ the whole time):
There was a scene filmed, but not included, where Ripley - as she’s in the atmosphere processor searching for Newt at the end - stumbles across Burke cocooned to the wall.
He begs to be freed. She says nothing, but puts a grenade in one of his hands, and then walks away.
Alen 3 is a well made film, but it didn't go the direction fans expected. It was meant to close out the story.
Wrong. It completely breaks continuity in the opening credits, and destroys everything this movie built up.
go home...@@miller-joel
Yeah, I'd honestly stop here. The rest just aren't worth it. Special effects are great, storyline is crap.
@@sivonni I thought the storyline was a good one, but it's ruined by the fact that it breaks continuity with the previous movie.
Those sentry guns - that's pretty much what the boys in Normandy went up against... Insane.
Everyone gives Hudson grief because he's reacting like most of us would in the circumstances. However, he was extremely competent at his job (electronics and computers). He's also not so cowardly as his panicky demeanor suggests; he's a seasoned Marine, a combat veteran. He's just up against something he's not prepared for.
He's also the one who rescues Newt in the lab, and he buys everybody else time when they fall out of the ceiling. He went out a badass; give him his propers.
The Xenomorph Queen was a the largest puppet in the history of Hollywood. Operating it required combining rod puppetry (big arms and legs), animatronics (head/jaws) and two stuntmen _inside_ the suit working the smaller arms. On the other hand, the nuclear blast was a dead simple effect. They built a shallow wooden box with a hole in the bottom, then filled it with torn-up cotton balls. Push a lightbulb up through the hole, while turning the dimmer from low to full bright. Boom.
Fun fact: Paul Reiser, Burke, took his mother to the premiere of Aliens. When Burke died, she cheered.
Ripley strapped with the motion tracker and pulse rifle and flame thrower is PEAK
When the actor playing Burke took his mother to the Premiere, she cheered when he was killed off and said he deserved it 😂
Also he’s in stranger things.
1:00:05 ""what will the pistol do!?"
The short answer is the same as the pulse rifles. the pistol used by Gorman fires the same ammunition. as the pulse rifles.
Worth making it clear that the Aliens are not immune to being shot. They don't have armour that protects them from gunfire
53:13 bad idea 😂😂. Great reaction to the movie. 💯
Apparently Carrie Henn playing Newt enjoyed the slide so much she was intentionally blowing takes so she could keep riding it. Cameron promised her if she'd get a solid take in the can he'd make sure she was allowed to play on the slide for as much as she wanted for the rest of the shoot and they both followed through.
MU-TH-UR was simply the ship's operating system.
The company behind everything is Weyland-Yutani.
However, "The Company" didn't even believe Ripley.
Burke took it upon himself to investigate the colony. It wasnt a company decision.
He was running an "off the books" operation, and likely calling in favors.
....One can infer that the events in Alien were a similar scenario:
Some suit heard about the signal and re-routed an expendable asset to investigate. When the Nostromo disappeared, they covered their tracks and 57 years later, nobody has a clue.
There isn't anything at all telling us who is behind special order 937.
However, it's just that. The 937th special order that MU-TH-UR has received.
It's common practice for a Captain to receive special orders.
In this case, they are classified "Science Officer eyes only."
(That the Captain can easily access with a few keystrokes)
And a crew change.
These are one step above clerical adjustments.
The work of a suit, operating off the books.
He covered his tracks.
The Nostromo was classified as a lost ship.
If Weyland-Yutani wanted an Alien and knew they were there, they had 57 years to get one.
But they were amazed and in disbelief at Ripley's mere existence.
Burke sent the colony a message to check out a grid reference.
(From the colony's perspective, an order from "The Company ")
That's all he had. An X on a map.
Because Ripley (being a flight officer) was able to tell the I.C.C. Inquiry board exactly where it was.
...
I can go on and on.
There is nothing to suggest Weyland-Yutani as a corporate entity is behind the events of the (first 2) films. There is a fair bit of circumstantial evidence to suggest it is not.
This is one of the few sequels to equal/surpass an already excellent original movie. I would have loved to watch Blake's reaction to these two. Great work guys 👏
There are pictures of Michael Biehn (Hicks) recreating the scene of showing Ripley how to use the rifle with a tween girl in Ripley cosplay at a convention. It is so cute and wholesome.
What’s crazy is that you don’t see a full sized alien until halfway through the film. Imagine going to an Indiana Jones movie and he doesn’t even show up until it’s half over. But Cameron makes it work!
Hey, They didnt send the colonist knowing the aliens were there, they were just randomly colonising the planet but after they found ripley and she told them what they found and no doubt the co-ordinates of the alien ship, burke after knowing then sent a message to the colonists to check it out, and probably to keep it to themselves which they would want to do so they can claim the find, The timeline suggests this because as soon as they find ripley and after the hearing they lose contact with the colony.
This is my favorite movie series. Yes, the first two films are the best but I really love all Alien films. Each one adds something new and fresh to the lore. Hudson & Vasquez are my favorite characters here (after Ripley of course).
Also, the Cocoon scene from the first film (Director's Cut version) is a canon. It shows and proves why xenomorphs are "perfect organisms".
No it isn't Ridley Scott has said that original that come out in 1979 is the director's cut. He just put the cocoon scene and for few other things because people want to see those things
@@mystique666 It is a canon because countless Alien novels, video games use this idea and all of them are canonic!
@@irina1296 no is has not been in countless novels it's be in only one a that alien was a mutation all the other have just been in documentays and deleted secens. Also because that wasn't in the first one James Cameron was able to make that the eggs come from a queen.
@@mystique666 James Cameron actually ruined the "perfect organism" theory. In Aliens xenomorphs are dependent on their Queen while in the Cocoon scene they really look like perfect organisms! It was already discussed in countless forums
@@irina1296 listen I don't care all I told you was that Ridley Scott said the original 1979 is the true version. So you then tell me that there have been countless novels which have some sort of cocoon sense but there has only been one. Now you tell me there are countless forms which believe James Cameron ruined the alien. Now I bet there are countless forums were people like how James Cameron introduced the queen and they believed flesh out the alien. Now we could go forever with this and let's just agree to disagree and let just finish it how does that sound
“Short, controlled bursts…” 2 secs later…mayhem. 😂😂😂😂
The thing that queen uses to lay eggs is called an ovipositor. Lots of insects have those too.
What a legendary movie! That soundtrack tho... the music that swells when Bishop rescues Ripley and Newt is some of the best ever made! This movie is pure adrenaline!
oh good, you guys are watching the directors cut
This is one of my most favorite movies of all time and i kept seeing these scenes i never saw before and then i realized this is the directors cut so thank you gentlemen for watching this version. I need to brush up on this whole version. Cheers
Bill Paxton is perfect as Hudson :P In old-school Starsiege Tribes multiplayer matches, we used action .wav sound clips (a mod) from Aliens and I used that "Game Over Man!! Game Over!!" as my death sound.
22:13 "They're definitely gonna' be using those to fight." -- It's Chekov's load lifter.
Bishop in terms of story telling is what is called 'a red Herring'.
The portable heartbeat/movement radar was seen first in Aliens, I think. Since then it has become a staple of many video games.
You mentioned liking the waist-mounted heavy machine gun. It was actually made by putting a gun directly on a Steadicam Stabilizer. The power loader that Ripley drives isn't actually fully mechanical. In fact, only the grips on the ends of the arms are. The entire rest of the loader is actually a hollow suit with stuntman John Lees inside. Sigourney Weaver just stands in front of him while he walks around and moves his arms. The two antennas on the top of the loader are the anchor points for the suspension cables that hold the suit upright.
And the APC/tank thing is actually an airport tug vehicle. You can still see similar ones if you pay attention when looking out the windows at a gate.
According to legend, after the movie released a bunch of construction and haulage companies started calling Fox, asking where they could buy a Power Loader, thinking maybe it was some kind of prototype that the studio had borrowed for the movie.
@@weldonwin omg that's fantastic lol!
We watched this as teenagers back in the 80's. You can imagine how immensely badass Aliens felt to me and my buddies.
Echoing some of the comments below, definitely watch the Assembly cut of Alien 3; or whatever the hell the non-theatrical version is called. You get a bit more context that really improves the experience - but I would love to see your reaction to 3 as well. Also yes, Terminator 1 and 2 are a must, and Predator 1 and 2 ought be on the list!
If you guys care of those characters, stay away from Alien 3. It's a steep descent from this.
@@andreabindolini7452 Yeah.... Alien3 doesn't exactly run with the character dynamic set up throughout Aliens, which I think is a big part of why it is disliked by so many fans of the franchise. I still enjoy it, and it's going to be necessary if you plan to continue onwards to Alien: Resurrection.
@@johndracup3428 One can say that Alien 3 is not strictly necessary as a premise to Alien: Resurrection (that, by the way, is even worse)... could be only a bad dream in hypersleep... ;-)
Not everyone agrees with you, the fan base is split. Alien 3 does a good job of wrapping up the series, in my opinion, and I'm British, so the accents don't bother me, unlike a lot of other people. Alien Resurrection was a cash grab, pure and simple, but it was still enjoyable, and had it's moments. @@andreabindolini7452
This movie was a real roller coaster when it first came out, so good it still holds up very well today.
The xenomorphs are, in fact, a cross between humans in several movies. They take on some characteristics of the host. In these, there is a human skull under a translucent dome, hard to see but visible in the suits the actors wore and the models that were sold. Geiger's (Gee-ger) original artwork shows it.
The alien's are basically just mutated dna of the hosts
I know it's in the costume for the first film which Geiger made himself, it's not in the costumes used in this film I think since they made so many and they had to be constructed to a hardier design for shooting the more active scenes.
Funny you should mention that being the "best slide ever." The little girl who played Newt kept messing up takes because she was having so much fun on the slide. Can't remember if it was Mr. Cameron or someone else on the crew who told her that if she got the next take right, she could play on the slide for the rest of the day.
She nailed the next take *perfectly.*
Aliens is much better than movies nowadays in terms of characters , story and keeping the audience interested.
I can't think of a film that's relative to this in sequels in 30 years. Wonderful film. Great music!
The thing about the ICC license is it's 56 years later.. the license wouldn't even apply anymore.
As an Isaac Asimov fan, I really really enjoy seeing Bishop explain that his model of Android follows at least one of Asimovs laws of robotics. It also explains his and Ash’s fascination with the Aliens, because as Asimov explains in I,Robot, man made robots eventually see themselves as far superior to humans, even though they will never harm them. So seeing something else far superior to humans gives them almost a kinship. We see this when Bishop calls the facehugger ‘Magnificent’. Another sign is Bishop saying, even though he can’t harm one ‘not bad… for a human.’
It's funny you mentioned Ripley looks like Snow White since Sigourney actually plays the Evil Queen in Snow White: A Tale of Terror.
And you said the airduct where Newt slid down looked funny. Actually, the little girl liked sliding it so much she kept messing that scene on purpose just to try it again. Jim Cameron picked up on that and told her she could play there anytime she wanted after the scene ended.
Burke's actor took his mom to watch the movie and she cheered when he died. 😅😅😅
There is a deleted scene that isn't shown in any version of the movie. It was filmed though. When Ripley is looking for Newt she comes across Burke cocooned. He's alive and says something like he can feel it inside of him. Ripley just hands him a grenade and presses on. That's why there an explosion a bit later.
I had the chance to see it in a pack theater when it came out (I'm old) without any idea of the plot except the "s" at the end of Aliens. It was one of the most enjoyable ride ever. The gasps of the crowd when the walls started to move full of xenomorphs and the breathtaking confusion of the fight was amazing. Some scenes were quite rare at the time but we take it for granted now, like when the shuttle crash and keeps going towards them in pieces. When Burke buys it, in the elevator, the crowd actually clapped and cheer, also with the "get away from her, you bitch!" It was great and we came out of the theater like electrified. Plus it was the theater version, the first cut, which is like non stops action. I now appreciate the long version, but in the theater, the pace made it hard to breathe ! Great movie. Don't ask me if i like 1 or 2 better, they're both 10 in different moods.
I'm really enjoying the chemistry between these guys.
They're laughing because they were impressed by her, assuming she was just some worthless civvie "consultant."
James Cameron went God mode with Aliens!!!
Aliens (1986) is in the Top 3 Best Sequels ever made. The other two are Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). Which is #1, is hard to answer...
Godfather 2.
I can't remember where I read it and if it's canon or not, but I think the stasis pods work by suspending the bodies autonomic functions while maintaining the health of each individual cell during stasis - basically stopping (or drastically slowing it down) the body in time so a person doesn't age when they are in cryosleep, they are the same age when they wake up as when they went to sleep - while outside time passes as normal. The person is effectively in a very deep sleep, they apparently still dream which is required to maintain mental health. I also read that the maximum time a person can spend in the Weyland-Yutani cryo pods is 65 years after that the body can't survive and starts to breakdown beyond the capacity of the pod to preserve it. So Ripley came close to the max limit and was lucky to get picked up.
"You won't be going in with the troops. I can guarantee your safety."-Gorman.
What happens later? She goes in with Troops. If they wanted to guarantee her safety they should have left her in The Sulaco orbiting the planet.
And they left the ship empty? No 'b' team in case things went south quick.
"That would be an interesting movie, cross-breeding them..." A man after my own heart. I've personally always wanted to see a xenomorph crossbred with a duck. The duckomorph.