Did you misspeak when you said the first movie was action and the second movie was psychological? Because there is no question the first movie is all suspense and the second is all action. I am very curious.
The director says they prefer the… (checks notes)… directors cut. Yeah, i think you can take that as a given. I want to see the director who says they don’t prefer their version. Even if they didn’t legitimately prefer their version, why would they ever say that publicly?!
Aliens is a breed apart in nerd sci-fi. Not only great lines from Bill Paxton, but just lines in general. "In the pipe, 5 by 5' Anyone who has ever played Starcraft knows that line. His soliloquy about nukes, knives and sharp sticks is another reminder. Such an awesome film in all aspects. They mostly come at night. Mostly.
Aliens isn’t just one of the best sequels of all time, it’s one of the best action movies of all time. I have loved Aliens since the first time I saw it when I was ten. Just a phenomenal movie.
Yep, same here but I saw Alien at that age first, then Aliens a few years later and it was absolutely fantastic, so much of it looked absolutely real, from the drop ship to the tank, to the robo lifter Ripley was running at the end. I still watch these two films regularly. Cheers!
Watching this as a 10 year old for the first time in 1989 literally made my jaw drop! As a 43 year old now, I still watch it every now and then and it is probably my favourite film of all time
sadly I watched the special edition version on VHS first when it came out for my 13th birthday party with my mates, then could never find it again for years and only had the theatrical release ever on tv in the UK and in shops, it blows my mind that then cut so much out, but i guess theatre time constraints?
It's definitely in my top 10 favorite of all time. That list includes terminator 2, fight club, no country for old men, hell or high water, the first alien and a couple more.
Ripley's little head tilt, and the change of her facial expression from scared to "kill mode" before she opens fire in the egg laying room is so awesome.
I’m surprised you skipped over the “Get away from her, you BITCH!” line. Listen, I was in a theater on the opening weekend of Aliens. When Sigourney delivered that line, the roof blew off that place. Screaming, yelling, hooting, hollering, whistling, high-fiving… the crowd came unglued. It’s the most memorable moment I’ve ever had at a theater.
It's my #1 all time favourite delivered line in any movie. Sigourney put everything into it. I've heard it dozens of times and it still gives me goosebumps.
Must be an American thing, I've never in all my 36 years of going to the cinema seen anyone high five each other in the UK/Ireland while watching a movie. I remember watching The Phantom Menace on a shitty VHS copy and when Maul is defeated the entire cinema starts hollering and cheering, I found it bizarre and amusing.
@@ProEvoKing Where I live, people are generally quiet and respectful at the theater. But, sometimes, people can't help themselves. They get so invested in a movie, they have emotional reactions. I witnessed a similar crowd reaction when I saw Rocky IV on opening weekend. When Rocky beat Drago, people were actually standing and cheering.... like they would if they were actually at the fight.
Also saw Aliens in a theater opening night and as the survivors were getting into the sleep chambers, someone up in the front yelled "Oh no, NOT AGAIN!!!!!" The entire place was filled with people that had watched and re-watched Alien and everyone burst out laughing. Although you might not remember when you first saw Aliens @Heavy Spoilers, I will remember when I did forever since it was the 2nd movie I had ever seen on opening night.
Gorman redeemed himself by going back for Vasquez. He could have easily escaped with Risley and Hicks, but instead ran to her aid knowing it would probably cost him his life. “You always were an asshole, Gorman” was high praise from Vasquez. I love the camaraderie.
I liked his character because he wasn't a bad guy or a coward, just really inexperienced and not a good leader. After he apologizes to Ripley, he jumps right into action with the rest.
I think this is one of the reasons the film works so well - the antagonists are realistic. In later installments they are just evil pricks. But in this one, the commission that demotes Ripley seem like real people you would meet in a corporation. Burke is evil - but it is not like he is a devil incarnate, he is just extremely greedy and potentially sociopathic. But Gorman is an antagonist that isn’t evil either, he is just inexperienced but his heart is actually in the right place. When he wakes up he apologizes but also defers to Ripley’s leadership.
Yeah, I love how even a supporting character like him had a redemption arc. He went from over confident, smug Lt. who thought he knew what was what.....to standing down and allowing Ripley,who was an advisor and an enlisted E-4 ,Hicks to take the lead, even though he had rank and was the only officer deployed. He backed everyone up in the last attack(dropped the ball again by allowing Burke to escape and lock the door. Nobody's perfect.lol) to going back for Vazquez. Vazquez calling him an asshole was her letting him know in their final moment that she had forgiven him....and they locked hands....and gone! His arc showed that Lt.Gorman was simply like many inexperienced officers throughout history and froze at a key moment. He panicked,which is human.....he learned from his mistake and his conscience made him correct his character flaws. He wasn't an evil person or true villain,like Carter Burke! What films made recently have developed their supporting characters the way this movie did?
I saw Aliens before I saw Alien. With the descriptive dialogue and references to the previous movie, I was able to mentally visualize what had happened. Several years later I was finally able to see the original, and it was pretty close to what I imagined had happened. Just another example of how much of a good director/story-teller James Cameron is.
Cameron's portrayal of marines as having a wide range of personalities actually humanized them and made them more relatable. Had he portrayed them all as Rambo, this would have been the umpteenth movie doing that exact thing. I also kind of think he didn't really mean it when he said that he would have made them look more heroic had he had another chance; I just think he was trying to avoid being labeled "anti armed forces".
On a sad note, I saw the actor who played Apone, Al Mathews in an interview several years back, and he had somewhat advanced dementia. It was heartbreaking, because he was probably my #1 favorite actor in the film.
I was a paratrooper, stationed at Fort Bragg in 1986. When I saw it the theater was packed with paratroopers, and we were very vocal and rambunctious in our appreciation for this movie! Several years later I read the novelization of Aliens (by Alan Dean Foster) [based upon the full script aka the "director's cut"]; just after reading the book A Bridge Too Far (by Cornelius Ryan) about Operation Market Garden in 1944, the largest deployment of paratroopers in history. I noticed that the names of All of the Marines are shared by historical Paratroopers who participated in Operation Market Garden! Perhaps it is a coincidence, but it is common to use a literature source to come up with names of secondary characters. Lieutenant Colonel John Frost was in command of the British Paratroopers at Arhem Bridge. Brigadier Hicks was in command of the British Glider Brigade (or one of the Paratrooper Brigades), there was a Hudson in the 82nd Airborne, a Gorman too. Wierzabowski was in the Polish Paratrooper Brigade, etc. Several of the names are quite prominent, others very obscure.
@@theengine US 82nd Airborne Division, possibly the 101st Airborne too, definitely the British Paras: Frost, Hicks, and Wierzabowski in the Polish Paratrooper Brigade; at least one German: Dietrich. Cheers 🍻
I think Alien and Aliens are both perfect movies, but for different reasons. That's why it's really hard for many people, including myself, to decide which one is "better." You can't really judge them by the same metric, but when you look at each one individually, they both end up being rated perfect. Just my two cents.
They really Are, 2 different animals, which are both perfect films I think also. Too bad Alien 3 is such a disappointer really.. What I hate about A3 is the depressing beginning... Ripley has to be the most tragic of Any heroine that I can think of. The few moments of Any happiness that she experiences in the movies are with Newt, which is a VERY short time. 😞
@@meloralovesdarkness2495 I would have been happy if they let the ending of Aliens complete the Ripley arc and they explored a different aspect of the Alien lore.
Another great thing about this movie is THERE ARE NO WEAK ACTORS - not a single performance was weak - the minimum bar for all the performances was extremely high - Cameron extracted amazing performances from everyone - Bill Paxton deserved an academy award for this film his portrayal of a panicky blustery space marine REALLY MADE the movie and provided all the necessary humor!!
Yep, all of the characters in Aliens have their own unique charisma and all of them are remembered. Who remembers any of Prometheus' irrelevant characters?
no weak actors, except Sigourney Weaver, who seems to equate having a uterus is better than having a penis. Both are required to proliferate. GG metoo weaver.
Al Matthews, who plays Apone, was actually a decorated U.S. Marine in Vietnam. He actually helped trained the other actors in their tactical movements to look more realistic to Marines tactics.
He was the first Dark Green Marine in the 1st Marine Division in Vietnam to be meritoriously promoted to the rank of sergeant. Semper fi, Sgt. Matthews!!! 🦅🌎⚓️
@@theelder4797hey fun fact, the definition of factoid is “an item of unreliable information that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact” -description literally taken from google’s dictionary feature
I always wonder if the "look into my eye" was ad libbed because it was a common phrase in the marines "look into my eyes and tell me if you see any concern"
Regarding the suggestion that the marines have come across the Xenomorphs before; I've always understood this to be that they have battled OTHER alien lifeforms before and usually had a pretty easy time of it. "Xenomorph" is just a general term meaning "Foreign Shaped", and not these aliens in particular.
@@d.ryanwebb1166 Even as a young teen watching the film it seemed obvious that xenomorph was just a generic term for an alien and not a species name. I'm not trying to pretend I'm some kind of intellectual because I'm not, but I was surprised more viewers didn't pick up on the etymology of the name.
A little detail a lot of people may have missed, in the scene when the marines first enter the Xenomorph nest, and Apone tells them to switch to infrared, you see the part when the character Dietrich, who has her infrared visor on, just looks directly at a hidden Xeno. She even states, “Maybe they don’t show up on infrared at all.” before looking away from the Xeno before it grabs her. This little detail was a crucial moment to use in the later Alien vs. Predator films, explaining why the Predators couldn’t initially see the Xenos without changing their visors to a different spectrum.
I just love that shot and the reveal of that xenomorph in the wall behind her. I think most viewers realize it before it starts moving, already being familiar with their appearance.. but it just looks so great blended in there and to your point, she looks right at it before turning back around. Another piece of evidence that the "xenomorphs in Aliens are so dumb compared to the original" argument is moot.
Hicks sleeping during the drop ship sequence is actually a reference to marines being able to sleep even while riding in the most uncomfortable and rough moving transports. This got a huge laugh when I saw it in the theatre while in the Marine Corps in 86. This was an excellent video.
I always thought it was because he lost consciousness because of the G-force effect but the sleeping part is more accurate, since he's a marine and was most likely trained to not faint in this kind of situation.
It's also shown in direct contrast to Lt Gorman being tensed up because it's only his second combat drop. The experienced corporal vs the green JO, whose lack of real combat experience leads to poor decision making (all done remotely, to boot), which results in a massacre. It's only after he's knocked out and the cool-headed corporal takes over that they get at least some sort of plan going.
Sigourney Weaver completely leads this film marvelously.. she rightly deserved her Academy Award nomination for, this now, iconic role. Everybody was just so good here, too that's what's crazy about it. The entire cast played their roles beautifully and yet, hers stands out the most..she _is_ Ellen Ripley.
The Special Edition of Aliens is the perfect film. 40 years later this film holds right up. And Ripley's journey from Alien and into Aliens is just one of the great all time character arcs, and she's one of the best written characters ever.
re: The portrayal of the Marines. I had just finished a 4-year enlistment in the Corps when this movie came out. The portrayal was pretty damned spot-on. There were blowhards like Hudson. There were ice-cold badasses like Hicks. There were professional lifers like Apone. There were hard-chargers like Vasquez and Drake. Guys just trying to get the job done like Frost. Every Marine in the movie reminded me of somebody I knew. Cameron has nothing to apologize for.
He probably meant that he apologized for interviews where he basically said all of the enlisted were horrible humans, instead of having issues with the people who say back in the Pentagon being those men killed. Kind of like how the anti war movement didn't actually do anything but leave thousands of Marines and Navymen homeless after Vietnam
@@Matt_History i thought the anti war movement was about preventing guys from dying overseas, and either bringing them home or preventing them from being deployed. The responsibility for following through with caring for vets is and was the responsibility of veterans affairs/the army, isnt it? Isnt that still the issue, that those who run these operations arent providing the resources for the people they are ensuring will need them?
I think we all need to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude for Jennifer Lawrence breaking through the glass ceiling and becoming the very first lead female role in an action movie which paved the way for movies like Aliens...
Something as simple as the scene where Ripley tries to make herself useful by operating one of the loaders shows you how well the story was thought out. They had to introduce the loader and demonstrate that Ripley knew how to use it, but the scene works so well as Ripley developing a rapport with the marines that we don’t suspect that it’s a plot device.
And when Burke visits her it's also mentioned that she's been running loaders on the cargo docks due to the loss of her license. So it's a slowly building element.
yeah, that scene is perfect, and the loader is one of the ALL TIME most badass and coolest sci fi pieces of all time, and it sets up one of the most badass scenes at the end when it's revealed again
One thing I loved about Aliens the first time I saw it, was the way the marines changed over time. They were introduced as absolute clowns and probable xenomorph fodder, shallow and the type you wouldn't really be upset about if they died. But they very quickly demonstrate that they are real people underneath all the bravado, and that while they may be terrified of the situation they've found themselves in, they're capable of adapting quickly and fighting bravely.
Yep, HORRIBLE writers in the 80s. We NEVER learn the important things, things that define WHO people are, like they do today. Who do the Marines have sm3x with??? What's in their Marine jeans? A twig and berries, or an Arby's roast beef? Or NEITHER, like a true non-binary? Or BOTH, like a truly progressive Bud Light drinker? And who do they rub that crotchRot up against?? And what COLOR is theirs, the MOST important feature and identity of ANY person?! The only thing we learned that is important was BEHIND the scenes, when we found out that LatinX womXn was actually a HU-WHYTE womXn! This made me cry, and after that, it made me color with my non-hu-whyte Crayons, and after that, I IMMEDIATELY began cancelling this fake, cultural AND skin appropriating LatinX womXn on X. Hopefully the evil African American Elon Musk and his child, X, will lose everything and then get deleted by my loving, peace loving, life loving androgynous allies and comrades. 🌈
@@christophersmith4897Agreed, but I think the OP may have meant something more like class clowns, which could easily apply to at least 3 of the Marines.
@@kingtonsiljockey528Poor Michael Has Been - he never made it to top A list actor, and IMO he's just as competent as the rest of those who did, and way better than the ones who remained at B- their whole careers.
I LOVE the director's cut of Aliens. The robot sentry guns, the early scenes at Hadley's Hope with Newt and her family, the backstory on Ripley's daughter... Great stuff.
@@Otokichi786 I actually got my hands on a complete draft of the screenplay at a con years ago and got to read the scenes long before the director's cut DVD came along.
I politely disagree. I do think the robot sentry guns vastly improve the pacing of the second act. But all the other additions just turn subtext into text and are superfluous.
@@JasonHaines1974 totally agree, Jason. Get all of that extra touchy-feely crap out of my action movie (it was already a little too touchy feely, imo). I normally feel the opposite, and I'm not a big fan of action movies to begin with, but this one was so well done (in its theatrical form) that I hate to see its near-perfection marred.
34:21 Good god, almost 40 years later this scene is still so badass it gives me chills. Not just the scene itself, but the sound track absolutely MAKES the scene. From the rhythmic industrial hammer-like clanking as the structure collapses around them, crescendoing to the adrenaline racing thumping horns and snare drums as Bishop "floors it", making the ship itself heroic as it protects the protagonists from the plumes of flame engulfing it, its engines revving at full blast just barely keeping it ahead of the destruction, and then it all just ends abruptly and goes silent as the nuclear blast goes off. This movie was an absolute masterpiece.
So the song here is actually strongly based on Gustav Holst's Mars movement in his orchestral suite The Planets. Horner was definitely inspired by this, which was written in 1914 and played in full in 1918. For that matter, so was John Williams for Star Wars. Also Black Sabbath's main riff is right out of the same movement. That one piece has influenced cinema enormously. Jupiter has a lot of musical history that proceeds from it as well.
One super nerdy fact: the two smart guns of Vasquez and Drake consisted mainly of the vest and arm of the Steadicam, a stabilizing device for cameras which were actually also used in Aliens. But the interesting fact was, that those two Steadicams we see in Aliens belonged to Steadicam operator John Ward (RIP) who rented them out to the production and couldn`t work on the movie himself because he was busy filming...Full Metal Jacket :-D John Ward, btw, worked on movies like Robin Hood (with Costner), Fifth Element etc., one of the two Steadicams from Aliens is still in use by an american Steadicam operator.
A Steadicam arm with a modified German WW2 MG-42 machinegun with a bunch of motorbike parts attached to it! The two working Pulse Rifles they made for the film were built from a Thomson submachinegun (Tommy gun) with a comibnation of a shortened Remington 870 shotgun with the slide and handguard from a SPAS-12 shotgun to act as the grenade launcher. Really good prop building.
The realism and attention to detail in this movie are beyond belief! I remember when they were de-orbiting from the mother ship, and the pilot, corporal ferro (Collette Hiller) says, "We're in the box, 5 by 5". I learned later as a systems engineer for Iridium that when satellites are in orbit the flight control system tracks a "virtual" orbital box (like staying within the ductwork of a furnace) and 5m x 5m is not abnormally small for a high-precision orbital (or de-orbiting) box! Bravo !!
And I always thought "five by five" was the optimal response to "how do you hear me?". There's a Wikipedia page on Signal strength and readability report.
What I always appreciated about the film is that the special effects were done in such a way that they maintain believability even well into the modern day of CGI. With the exception of a limited few scenes, the viewer is left thinking "how did they make it look so real?!" This remains one of my favorite films of all time.
The only real rough looking part is the drop ship entering the atmosphere, you can just tell it was against a green screen. Everything else is hard to notice unless you're looking for it
And how many 300+ million dollar movies that have been made in the past 10 years will look Fukking AWFUL in a decade, and EMBARRASSING when compared to a then 40+ year old movie.
@@osets2117 I've seen some amazing effects touch ups done by amateurs using editing software available to everyone - I agree with you and I am 1000% sure they could make it look near perfect. Depending upon the viewer is where my effects retooling opinion arises: For a modern 20 year old who has never seen Aliens, I would support making the drop and end scenes up to date with the best modern abilities, mainly because that end scene really rips me from suspension of disbelief, and I think that would have a big effect on the emotional immersion on the young, modern viewer.
I think cutting the sentry guns for the theatrical release was a huge mistake. They completely explained why so few xenos ultimately penetrated ops. And why there were virtually none left when Ripley infiltrated the hive at the end.
@5wheels178 true, but the original xeno population was probably at least 100 (probably more) with 157 colonists to impregnate (Newt didn't, that's why I subtracted one from the population). This is taking into account some colonists likely dying in combat with the xenomorphs.
The main reason there aren’t as many is because the hive is in the atmospheric processor, which Ripley flies to aboard the dropship, so she gets a head start on all the xenos still making their way back to the hive from Hadley’s hope.
Yeah, the robot sentries were another "Scare the Shit out of the Audience" effect like the scanners or the supposed safety of high-firepower guns! The marine platoon hears the sentries firing on aliens in the hallway and monitors them and you think "Okay this is it they're winning" until the sentries use up 400 ROUNDS OF AMMUNICATION AND RUN DRY !!!
Bill Paxton is perfect in this movie. It's crazy that anyone would have imagined his portrayal to be to be disrespectful to the military. His whole character arc starts with being a short timer (a very real thing in the military) and end with being a grade A bad-ass when it comes down to the line and sacrificing himself. Hudson is the most relatable character in the movie, and that's largely due to Bill Paxton's portrayal.
Ripley going back for Jones in Alien and then doing the same thing for Newt in aliens has always seem, to me at least, to be a reference to the power and strength of the maternal instinct. Just like how a mother bear will put herself into tremendous danger and take on anything that stands between her and her offspring Ripley has the same response to those she feels that same connection to. She wasn't able to do this for her biological daughter and so that drive is even stronger as she has a need to atone for her failure as a mother. I know a few people who thought going back for Newt was stupid and added nothing to the film but in doing so and confronting the queen we found the queen had the same response, almost like it is universal. So we were left in a mexican stand-off between two mother bears, both of which were willing to do whatever it takes to protect their young. When they weren't able to do this they wrought vengeance upon the one who stood in their way.
Idk if cryo has been done before this in movies, but the whole idea that Ripley spent her daughter's whole life in a cryo pod, especially that scene where she promised to be home for her 11th birthday absolutely blew me away, and crushed my soul.
Cutting the scene with her daughter has to be one of the biggest mis steps in a film. It provides so much more depth to the story and motivation. I was surprised Cameron allowed it to be cut.
It wasn't really a mis-step because as it was edited, it was decided that Ripley would not be portrayed as having strong regret or emotion over a situation she couldn't change. They decided to make it something she would briefly consider, then realize it was no use to try to connect to someone she never knew as an adult. It was too sticky of a plot point to work in a more action based movie. I wish I knew which edition with which commentary I heard that in, but I'm fairly certain one of the writers said it, or it was a writer that Cameron was quoting as his words better explained the decision. Sorry about that.
@@bigguy7353 That makes sense for a cinema release and trying not to be too wishy-washy with the action theme. I'm glad they added it to the director's cut though, because it really brings home the fact that, to Ripley, it's only been a matter of weeks or maybe months since she last saw her 10 year old daughter. She's only out of hyper-sleep for a day in the first movie and then maybe one or two days before she finds out she's been gone for 57 years. Add to that whatever time she spent working on the Nostromo prior to the first movie. So that feeling of regret would still be strong. It was kind of heartbreaking for me when I realised Ripley's relative timeline from the start of the first to the end of the second movie is only a week or two? Maybe up to a month since I don't think there's any specifics on how long she was working the power loaders before they lose contact with LV-426.
Probably another example of Cameron's preference to axe entire subplots if the movie is running long (remember, action movies were generally shorter back then than they are now), rather than picking away at individual scenes until they become pointless. He did it in The Abyss too for example by axing the cold war surface tension scenes/big wave sequence, and also much of the husband/wife bickering (to the point that you don't even know why Ed Harris goes through most of the movie with one of his hands dyed blue... lol)
@@pcppbadminton There are some stated times that can give an idea of how long events took during the film. But there is also a lot of room left for assumptions. It is not mentioned how long Ripley spent recovering in the hospital so an assumption of 2 or 3 days could be made. It is established that Burke is the one who sent the message instructing the colony to find the alien derelict, something he couldn't have done before Ripley provided her testimony. The colony administrator states that it takes 2 weeks to recieve a reply to any messages sent to Earth so assuming Burke sent the message on the same day, it would have been read by the administrator one week after Ripleys' testimony. It isn't stated how long it took the surveyers to find the derelict but it can be assumed that it was on the other side of the moon given that the colony had been there for years and noone noticed it. So a few days, maybe a week to find it? With normal communication traffic coming in from the colony, noone on Earth would have suspected what would be happening over the next few hours and days. It is later stated that they had lost contact with the colony as opposed to recieving a distress call. Burke would have expected an update around 3 weeks after sending his message and when none came he would have made the request to investigate. In order to keep his true intentions secret, he would have had to wait at least another week in case the loss of communication was a technical problem. It isn't stated how much time passed between Ripley being told of the communication failure and her deciding to go investigate so I'll assume a couple more nightmares. The Sulaco was probably dispatched the next day given the fairly small force being sent, arriving at LV-426 17 days later. The 17 days is stated by Hicks as being how long help would take to arrive after being declared overdue. It isn't stated how long the events at Hadleys Hope last but could be assumed as one maybe two days so the survivors are back on the Sulaco and in hypersleep by day 19 of the mission. I think it's safe to say that Aliens takes place over roughly 52 days at the longest, 34 days if Burke starts the investigation immediately after not recieving his expected update and Ripley only spends one day in the hospital and one day making the decision to go.
The head tilt and facial expression Ripley has when an egg opens just as her and Newt are leaving the Queens Brood Chamber like “oh, you B I T C H!” And almost like, “really? We had a deal.” Then absolutely roasts everything... hands down, my favorite moment in the whole franchise.
The way I see it, since so many of these eggs have caused problems throughout the first two films, it's basically her chance to shut it down for once. I've always read it as "Oh, no you don't."
@@seth8629 The eggs do open on their own even when a Queen isn't around. That's how most people get infected with facehuggers in places, where a Queen left a lot of eggs, but isn't around anymore. But there's one thing you might not know (or simply forgotten) about the Queen. She can still influence them through pheromones. It's also how she can control her drones, lead them to places, guide them around the nest, make them do, whatever she wants apart from their usual duties in the hive, in emergencies, as personal guards and stuff. So she could certainly stop the eggs from opening, if she wanted. Seeing that the egg opened and the Queen let it happen, could be perceived as breaking the "deal" with Ripley.
Ya, I've always interpreted it the same way. It's like she was willing to not torch them in order to escape but once that egg opened that look.on her face was like a moment of clarity like "really? Wtf was I thinking, of course I need to eradicate everything here."
Excellent. The only thing you really left out was that the joke about Vasquez signing up because she thought the mission was about "illegal aliens" was true to life. Jenette Goldstein auditioned for the film for that very reason. However, l think we can all agree that she was a total badass and played Vasquez better than anyone else could have.
One of my favorite moments is the Newt yawn. When the remaining people gather to make a plan on how to defend themselves, there’s a cut to Newt watching and she yawns. “Well, I’ve never seen this plan before.”
As far as Sci Fi Action Horror goes? . It honestly hasn't been matched yet.. District 9 gets an honorable mention though.. but that's a more intimate and personal film.. with 2 protagonists vs the evil corporation and Merc crew..
@DemiGod_Scrub I think they mean as far as woke activists infecting every writing room, production meeting, idea session and even reviews at this point.
@@bigguy7353 I like how these people insist on having strong independent women in the lead in just about every film as if it never happened before (always at the expense of men who are often portrayed as cowardly, incompetent or just downright evil. Presumably they've never watched Alien/Aliens, Terminator/Terminator 2 or Tomb Raider. It seems Indiana Jones is next for the woke executioners block.
3 points I want to make... Ripley didn't really go back for Jonesy. She panicked and dropped him when she saw the alien was blocking her path to the shuttle. After failing to abort the self-destruct sequence, she had no choice but to go back and happened to find Jonesy where she had left him. She obviously cared enough for the cat to make sure he wasn't left behind, but it's not comprable to saving Newt from the hive. The queen didn't back out of the negotiation. The egg was simply triggered by the presence of a potential host, which was unfortunate for all aliens involved. That sound at end of the credits is not of an egg opening up, but of a facehugger skittering across the floor. Listen to it in stereo and you can hear it move from one side of the screen to the other. Overall I enjoyed the video!
i always thought that the Queen must have known it needed to save itself there. SO i would like to believe the Queen would have let them escape (it wouldn't know about the impending thermo nuke explosion ).
Great video! it's probably been mentioned already but at 44:00, the reason another elevator comes down is Ripley smashes the elevator call button because she's in such a hurry to leave - just like we all do when waiting for one. Pretty much every action in this film has consequences, which is why it is such a masterpiece still today. Cheers!
One of the things I always appreciate with this movie is how Collette turns around to see the alien, and she doesn't do the cliche scream (not even cliche really, quite understandable lol), instead she pulls out her sidearm and fires.
@@BLAlley you're posting this because the Pentagon in 2003 , trying to sell a war to the world and the American created a pure fiction cover story about Jessica Lynch to make people like you happy so that you would support the war. Copy. "glamour I'm Jessica Lynch and here's my real story". and "the guardian the truth about Jessica Iraq" One at a time and paste them into a search engine. There was nothing bad ass about Jessica Lynch letting herself be discovered by the rescue mission. Everything you've heard about Jessica Lynch was a made-up cover story because they wanted women to support the war. And just in general have a positive warm sounding war story for the media.
Back when a well written character CAN be a strong woman, instead of modern trash where they have to make men look worse to prop them up, and those VVomen are just pretending to be men, all the way down to getting the girl into bed.
@@theelder4797 But let's be honest: Most men in the movie aren't really portrayed as capable. At least not when you take their job description into account.
I didn't realize the post credit scene was actually just an audio clip of an egg hatching. That is really understated awesomeness... very impressive, and forward thinking.
Wait a minute…what? There’s a post credit scene?!?! On my top 5 fave movie of all time that I’ve watched dozens and dozens of times? That ain’t possible
Two small details I really like: One is when Burke and Gorman visit Ripley. Ripley pours two cups of coffee for them and Gorman simply holds his and then puts it down on the table while Burke helps himself to the kitchen to add creamer on his. Two small character details just to show you their personalities. The other one is when Ripley and Newt stumble into the Alien Queen. Ripley tilts her head before burning up the eggs, and later the Alien Queen does the same head tilt when she sees the other elevator open before her and uses it to follow Ripley and Newt.
Actually, I always thought that the queen's head tilt encountering the dual elevators was like a dog tilting its head trying to understand something. There is another scene where the queen moves its head like a dog moving aggressively with its ears back. That's what I saw anyway.
It made Gorman already look a little tense or stiff in this situation. Like he came there for a purpose and can't quickly switch to casual. If you want to see him again in the Alien universe go play Alien: Isolation where he's Marshal Waits. ;-)
I was completely floored when you mentioned at the end that this movie was nearly 40 years old. I remember watching this as a teenager way back when we first got HBO on cable in the 90s. I never grew up knowing the first movie. Even so, this one still stands as a perfect standalone in itself. I may be one of the minority that actually liked the theatrical cut better than the director's cut though. Leaving out the whole business with Newt in the beginning just leant more mystery and heightened the eeriness of the whole situation. And as much as I love Mr. Paxton (god rest his soul), leaving out his extended chat during the drop was better too. You get enough of his attitude better portrayed in the rest of the movie. Anyway, loved your breakdown and easter eggs! Great video!
I think, the creative triumph of Aliens is that despite swapping the genre, it still feels like an authentic continuation of the narrative established in the first movie. Mostly because it is so faithful in tone and theme. The fact that Aliens is more action oriented almost feels like a mere technicality, that doesn't really take away from the feel of it all. That is also, why you easily could watch these movies back to back and be excused to believe, that the entire storyline was pre-planned just like this from the get go. It is just so seamless. The third part has some good ideas at it's core and atmospherically recreates many of the strengths of the first two movies. And I always felt that a self contained prison was actually a clever idea for the setting. But the troubled production and wonky ass CGI definetly brought the 3rd part down a fair notch. Even though, I liked it as a cannonic ending. Everything that came after that though, I could happily do without. Ressurection was just plain stupid and Prometheus as well as Covenenant feel very pretentious. They also give explanations that do more harm than good, leaning heavily on deus ex machina nonsense, which just feels very lazy and underwhelming.
@planescaped I actually like Alien 4 till the last act, and even that, while pretty bad, can be explained to some extent. That being said Alien (1) and Aliens (2) are totally different league.
Keep these retrospective reviews coming! They are great! I’d love to see one on the Bladerunner movies or maybe even Paul Verhovens other movies like RoboCop or Starship Troopers since you already did one for Total Recall
@@davyrobin4 ironically enough it’s more disturbing when you realize how it’s more so about America than Nazi Germany. Or rather colonialism, fascism and how propaganda brainwashes people into thinking their way of life is better compared to others. All of which just builds off of RoboCop and Total Recall’s themes in a nice little trilogy, so to speak
One of my all time favorites! My dad rented and recorded it on VHS. We used to watch it all the time when I was a kid. I have many great memories associated with this film. ❤
I seen the movie Aliens for the first time when I was stationed at Fort Knox during the late 80's. I didn't even knew they made a sequence until someone told me in the barracks and ask me if I want go to see...yeah. This movie was beyond its time especially not having CG available during that time. Now I wish they would make another Alien movie about how the Colonizers fought against the Aliens and making Hope the last surviving member left alive
Watching this movie when I was a kid, I was so relieved that they turned down the sheer terror to make room for turning up the action. The xenomorph is the all time scariest plot device of all time, and I love it. Now my daughter has begun collecting the McFarlane toys and when her friends come over I definitely enjoy the initial discomfort they experience when they see alien action figures and Huggy Wuggy stuffies.
When I rewatched The Descent I noticed many scenes that are subtle references to the Alien movies. One girl standing under dripping water like Brett, another one crawling through a tight space with the camera pulled in front of her, like Bishop, reaching out and almost managing to grab the arm but she eventually falls down the hole like Newt, the monsters face getting close to the protagonist like in Alien 3 and probably even more...
For me my fav scene/detail has always been the non-verbal communication between the 2 mom's when Ripley runs in to the sea of eggs. The "Let us go or I burn your shit to the ground" shot over the port bow with the flamethrower was absolutely brialliant!
Paul Riser had played 2 nice guys successfully in My Two Dads and Mad About You - TV series. Casting wise it harkens back to casting Anthony Perkins in Psycho. Perkins up to that point always played an innocent type-cast in many westerns and TV shows. His Psycho character , much like Burke don't get revealed until later in the film to be evil. Its one of those things where you kind of had to be around then to get it. Another brilliant choice.
I came here to post just that. Also wanted to mention that in the first film, John Hurt was the most well known actor of the cast so him being killed off in that way and thus not making it to the end, was also a subversion of the audience's expectations at the time.
You missed out how Hudson has a small character ark of from being a cocky coward to going down standing his ground and taking out a bunch of aliens like a boss in the end. Love your videos
Yeah he arked the most - from show off to coward to self sacrificing hero. Hicks is the best soldier after Apone but Hudson safes the day (at least for the next 5 seconds)
Also the fact that it's said that Bill Paxton was worried people would hate Hudson and was floored that he was so many peoples' favourite character (including me). "Oh you want some of this? F&*K YOU!" Brilliant.
As much as this is a great arc, it's not an easter egg or a hidden detail. We all got it. That's why we love his character so much. This vid is about stuff that we may have missed. I don't think many of us missed this though!
Hicks is the Scarecrow. Bishop is the Tin Man. Hudson is the Cowardly Lion. Much like the Cowardly Lion, Hudson starts with a false bravado. He gets exposed as a coward, only to eventually find his courage. Hicks is called a grunt, but helps develop the plan to survive. He comes up with the idea to find Newt with the tracker. Bishop is stoic and aloof. But in the end he risks himself to rescue Ripley & Newt when he could havw abandoned them.
The one great scene you left out IMO was the scene between Ripley and Newt when Ripley asks her what her dolls (head) thinks. Newt replies :"She doesn't haven't thoughts Ripley, she's just a piece of plastic." Just shows how the reality of what she was going through had made this little girl so practical and aware of the situation.
I remember seeing this the first time in the theater. The main thing I came away with was how I was on the edge of my seat for the final 45 mins of the movie. Cameron was a master at sustaining tension without letting it become tedious.
The point of the cigarette was that the long ash showed that she was just sitting there, despondant, and not even capable of smoking, or flicking the ash
I cannot tell you how absolutely lucky I am to have seen this movie in the theaters when it came out. I was 14, and I must have seen this 8 times in the summer of 86.
Aliens isn't just one of my favorite sequels, its easily one of my favorite movies of all time, everything they did with this movie was perfect, its truly timeless, no matter how many times i watch the film it never gets old, i actually own multiple versions of the directors cut and i wish so badly that they would release an updated directors cut that includes the rest of the extra scenes not found in the current directors cut. This movie is a masterpiece imo.
Just a word on the auto-loader that I think you may have missed. The Power Loader in the film was a full-scale prop constructed around stuntman John Lees, who was concealed inside, immediately behind Sigourney Weaver. Constructed from aluminium, fiberglass and PVC plastic, the finished machine weighed around 600 lbs and included hidden counterweights disguised as machine components to help balance it. Even so, owing to the suit's weight and bulk, it had to be either suspended from wires (concealed within the radio antennae on the suit's shoulders) or mounted on a counterbalanced crane for filming. It featured electrically operated claws, although the various hydraulic systems on the arms and legs were cosmetic only. The tandem design allowed Sigourney Weaver to be in the operator's seat at all times, while Lees controlled the suit from within.
sounds like you may of worked on it?, John Richardsons team in the UK made it, alot of it was lightweight vac forms. There is a funny story about a balloon..
@@multirevelator No, I didn't work on it (wish I did!), but I have a fascination for practical effects, and this movie was full of them! I have quite a few books on Alien, Aliens and H.R.Giger.
I first saw this in the balcony section of a very old and cavernous theater a few months before it was closed for renovations. It was a midnight show on a rainy night, and my buddies and I basically had this forlorn balcony section to ourselves. There was audible dripping emanating from dark recesses in the rafters above our heads. Maybe the most intense theater experience of my life.
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You repeated mention how "cocky" and excited the Marines were in a negative light. What would you rather have? A timid, nervous, and scared Military? How about frightened Fighter Pilots? Or timid Submarine crews? Being cocky or confident is a way to psyched for something hard and/or dangerous. It happens in a lot of fields where things are harder than making TH-cam videos.
These democrat abortion ads need to stop!!! Freaking every video gives me 1 or so those ads....which they just "cry he won't let us kill babies whenever we want for our rituals. Plus we love to lie."
Aliens my All-time favorite movie. Best sequel ever made, best sci-fi story, best acting. Stands the test of time. Thanks for the revisit. I usually watch this movie once a month sometimes more
LOL! I loved your breakdown. I don't get why other critics thought the marine's calling out a "bug hunt" was in reference to a possible encounter with the xenos... The context was that it was either a "rescue mission or a bug hunt" and the mention of the creature made them see it was the latter. I'm happy you weren't one of these critics who overthink things.
I was really impressed with the foley soundscape during the power loader fight. After a massive, center of gravity shifting punch, you hear the power loader taking a few baby steps to ensure it and Ripley don't fall over. It really cemented the illusion that it was a huge and powerful machine.
I love the third movie in the series, where the crew come back to Earth, Hicks takes a medical retirement, and Newt is raised as the ultimate badass by her new adoptive parents and synthetic uncle.
Little known fact Paxton met his wife in Richmond whilst they were filming in London at the now deconstructed Acton Power station which was also used as Axis Chemicals in Batman 89.
Understand that James Cameron knows NOTHING about being in the Military in general, and about being a Marine in particular. So all of the Vietnam and Military related stuff is just HIS opinion about things he had very little or no actual knowledge about. But I'm glad he acknowledges these aspects in that Film making class. Semper Fidelis.
Jeez, Truth mate chill oot. I had never noticed much of this and am only 13 mins in. The crossword and Lambert already are new to me. And Red Dwarf!!! Subbed Heavy 👊 Nice MC chief 😎
Aliens was the first one I saw of the franchise. I was 12 or so and it was on late night TV and I was determined to see it. I remember the tense feeling of turning on the family tv at midnight when I should have been in bed and asleep, to cover the light I used my big blanket to cover the screen like a tent and turned the volume nearly all the way down (this was when tvs had knobs) and I got so sucked into it I had forgotten myself and turned up the volume just before the whole place was going up, I can't remember if I woke anyone up but I know I got in trouble for sure. Still even the cut up tv version was amazing
Fun little fact. When Hudson says that Vasquez thought they said illegal alien and signed up, this is in reference to her audition for the role. The actress that played Vasquez knew she was auditioning for a role in the movie "Aliens", but she didn't know what it was about. She thought it was about illegal aliens crossing the border, so she showed up to the audition in a dress, thinking she was going to audition to be a Mexican woman. Kinda funny, considering the type of person Vasquez is in the movie.
@integral "Since Goldstein didn't have an agent, that was all the information that she had to go on. While she had seen the film "Alien," she did not know that they were doing a sequel, so she figured that it was for a film about immigration [...] So she showed up at the audition wearing "high heels and lots of makeup, and I had waist-length hair." -cbr
I remember seeing this at the cinema when it first came out. There was such excitement about it coming and it was the last film I saw with my dad before he died. He observed that the scary thing about Alien is that you don't know where the alien is, and the scary thing about Aliens is that you do know where they are...but there's nothing you can do about it. I still remember the audience reaction when RIpley takes refuge from the explosions and then looks round to find she's surrounded by alien eggs. At that point the air in the cinema became filled with collective gasps and uncomfortable murmuring - and then giggling when everyone realised they were all appreciating how awful a moment it was.
Aliens, Terminator & T2, True Lies, Titanic, and the Avatar franchise... what a filmography from Cameron. Would have to say that T2 is my favorite. So groundbreaking. Remember seeing it in the theater, and people were literally gasping at the special effects, and cheering on the action.
Aliens was the first movie that ever really stuck with me as a kid. my parents were awesome, and ratings meant nothing to them. at 7 years old I was running around building tree forts with my friends and playing aliens until dark every night. this movie shaped my childhood and sticks with me to this day. when I'm feeling bad.. watch aliens. i can honestly say over my life I've seen this film over 500 times. that's at least 47.57 full days of my life spent watching this masterpiece. I love Jim Cameron's films. I really wish he would step back and teach the next gen of film makers and writers how to build a believable world. he could be this generation's Roger Corman, like Corman did with him.
Cameron had such talent that I think he could’ve taken a bum off the street and made them into an Oscar winning performance. He truly was a king in his earlier career imo
Ive seen this film probably 60 times, love it to bits. I do prefer it over alien, not taking anything away from the first one, i just love the action and characters in the second. The xenomorphs are just terrifying....they are the only extra terrestrials that have actually given me nightmares.....and thats cool. I love all the little titbits of info youve found too.....like lambert being trans?? I never knew that, or even noticing hicks mimicking vasquez in "where they are" love learning all this new stuff after all this time. Keep up the good work paul
You mention that Lt Gorman is the only one of the marines to be called by their first name. In the Special Edition, we also learn Hick's first name is Dwayne, as he and Ripley share a small moment just before Ripley goes to rescue Newt. But that got me thinking about the first names of the other marines, and in the list of 12 marine names you show at about 19:40, no less than 10 of them have the same first initial as the actor portraying them. The two that don't follow this pattern are the two we hear the first names of in the film, Hicks.D portrayed by Michael Biehn, and Gorman.S being played by William Hope. Apone.A -> Al Matthews, Ferro.C -> Colette Hiller, Vasquez.J -> Jenette Goldstein, Drake.M -> Mark Rolston, Spunkmeyer.D -> Daniel Kash, Dierich.C -> Cynthia Dale Scott, Frost.R -> Ricco Ross, Wierzbowski.T -> Trevor Steedman, Crowe.T -> Tip Tipping, Bishop.L -> Lance Henriksen.
My favorite movie. There is a detail i have not heard much talk about. Which is 'How the Aliens got in' on the marines. Ripley says mustve missed something, hicks replies 'we didnt miss anything.' But when they were looking at the blueprints to secure the facility, they were talking about all the ways in. It goes into Burkes face only. And you can tell by his face he knows they DID miss something. He knows the layout of these facilities. Which is also proven because when go over the blueprints, they passed a point they were looking for...Burke gestures as if to say 'hey you passed it' but Hicks called it out first bt saying 'no..pan back.'
I always chalked it up to Hudson missing something with prepping the setup, since he was put in charge of it and was still panicked only just calming down as pe Ripley's orders.
Hudson was panicked. He wasn’t the badass he pretended to be, but was accomplished when it came to technical problems (which is way apone asks him to run bypasses to get in. And why Ripleytrust him to go over the layouts). Ultimately, Hudson out of everybody wanted to make sure they didn’t get in.
This is an incredible breakdown. I saw this movie when it first came out on VHS and it completely blew my mind so much so that its my favorite film to this day. There are so many details you can see in the blu-ray or streaming formats as compared to the Extended Version Laser Disc on a CRT monitor. In a way it was even more tense as the scenes played so much darker. Later in life I did finally see the film on both 35mm and a 70mm blowup. It's also hard to imagine now with all the bloated 3 hour plus movies today but back then Cameron had to trim the film down otherwise he would have lost an additional screening at the end of everyday. Many films have tried to replicate the vision of this film and pretty much none have ever surpassed it. I often wonder how is this the same guy who made the Avatar films? Again, brilliant breakdown on one of the best genere films ever made.
Still one of my favorite movies. Got to meet Lance Henrickeson. Talk about this movie for 10 minutes. He said he got sick off the goop from the final battle, but didn't tell James Cameron cause he didn't wanna loose the pay
I saw Alien as a 10 y.o. kid in '79 which made the long walk home through the woods at night....interesting. Then, with Aliens tied directly to the first, and with the action and acting, it was GENIOUS! Alien is still absolutely my GOAT Sci-Fi but I have love for the ENTIRE series. Thanks for the breakdown, I saw a couple of things in here that I hadn't ever noticed (the harpoon gun in the door of the lifeboat FI). I will def check out your channel from now on!
I’m 45 years, absolutely love both “Aliens” & “Wrath of Kahn”, seen both of them many times, and can’t believe that I didn’t pick up on the matching scores!!!
And there's the bit where Ripley is on the gantry at the end when Bishop is trying to pick them up in the dropship appeared in Die Hard when Al shoots Gruber- it's so weird how there are these little crossovers.
@mattl3729 I'd quite forgotten about that, but I also liken it to Star Trek II, probably because of its slightly more softer orchestral sound? But yeah, thanks for the reminder on that!
I was 12 years old when Alien came out. I went to see it ALONE in the theater. My dad was supposed to pick me up, but he passed out, so I had to walk home by myself in the dark. I was so fuxking scared the entire way and every tiny sound I heard I just knew it was an alien. I hate horror movies but I've loved sci-fi horror my whole life. I love the Alien and Predator movies so much, and this one was my favorite, and I have seen this dozens of times. This was a great breakdown.
I think the only part I could have done without was the restored colony scenes added to the front of the movie. I liked that I was meeting Newt for the first time along with Ripley and the marines.
When Ripley confronts Burke about planning to sneak two specimens past quarantine, Ripley says 'I just checked the colony log, dated 6/12/79'. I always thought that the '79' was an Easter egg referring to the year in which Alien was released; 1979.
I'm sure someone has already commented on this but, the pic of Amanda Ripley in her 60s that Ripley sees, is an actual pic of sigourney weavers mom in real life. Great idea whoever came up with that. It's very believable when you see it in the film.
2:44 never caught this before. Riley’s hand looks a lot like a face hugger here. This gives a subconscious hint that she is actually “pregnant” with one of the aliens while sleeping in hyper sleep. Creepy!!! 20:01 Napone immediately sticks a cigar in his mouth. He definitely fell asleep in his pod with the cigar in his hand knowing he’d want it right when he wakes up. Just a little bit of character building that you get in really well written stories.
What about in the beginning sitting with her drooping cigarette along with her curved fingers and knuckle? That immediately occurred to me as facehugger shaped. Brilliant if you think about what must have gone into that in terms of both creative thought and execution.
After watching this, my brother and I both had to reconsider our previous sentiment that Alien was our favorite Aliens movie. Brilliant analysis- thank you so much!
I really liked the explanation of Paxton's "bug hunt" phrase. He asks if it's going to be "ANOTHER bug hunt", which I always was very confused about wondering if they'd gone after other alien life forms before. Having the term also mean "snipe hunt" (where you trick an unknowing friend into hunting an imaginary "snipe" animal) actually makes a ton of sense and clarifies a lot. After Alien Isolation though, with Ripley's daughter running into Aliens (and her dead once this movie starts) it always made me wonder if something like this had been encountered before.
Cameron borrowed ideas from StarShip Troopers. hint hint Bug Hunt! How the Drop ship "drops" down into the planet, its weaponary and the fact that women were preferred to pilot because of better hand to eye coordination. You have to admit, there are parrellels.
One of the best sequels ever made.Super action, the definition of terror and agony, business corruption that tears everything and anything,great adaptation of the brave marines and James Cameron was the proper man for the job.
Check out our breakdown of Alien 3 here - th-cam.com/video/-auejnUVH4A/w-d-xo.html
Did you misspeak when you said the first movie was action and the second movie was psychological? Because there is no question the first movie is all suspense and the second is all action. I am very curious.
No, not Alien 3, nooooooo.... It's awful.
The director says they prefer the… (checks notes)… directors cut. Yeah, i think you can take that as a given. I want to see the director who says they don’t prefer their version. Even if they didn’t legitimately prefer their version, why would they ever say that publicly?!
Oh no, you poor soul! I'll go watch so you won't have had to torture yourself like that in vain.
This and the first film make me think of your heavily they influenced halo
RIP Bill Paxton. Some of the greatest lines in sci-fi.
Shame. Didn't knew he had passed. Talented actor.
No way man! Were fuckin dead man!
Aliens is right up there with True Lies & Weird Science two of Bill Paxton's best films
@@lhart99 Twister and Titanic. It's gone green...
Aliens is a breed apart in nerd sci-fi. Not only great lines from Bill Paxton, but just lines in general. "In the pipe, 5 by 5' Anyone who has ever played Starcraft knows that line. His soliloquy about nukes, knives and sharp sticks is another reminder. Such an awesome film in all aspects. They mostly come at night. Mostly.
Aliens isn’t just one of the best sequels of all time, it’s one of the best action movies of all time. I have loved Aliens since the first time I saw it when I was ten. Just a phenomenal movie.
💪👍🔥💯
It’s one of the best films across all genres of all time
Yep, same here but I saw Alien at that age first, then Aliens a few years later and it was absolutely fantastic, so much of it looked absolutely real, from the drop ship to the tank, to the robo lifter Ripley was running at the end. I still watch these two films regularly. Cheers!
I know right!? Aliens is superb, one of the finest examples of film-making ever created. WHAT HAPPENED TO MOVIES LIKE THIS???
I also saw it in downtown Kansas City theater. Everyone screamed when the egg popped at the beginning lol
This and terminator 2, two of the best sequels ever. 80s & 90s was the golden age of sci-fi.
And now most sci-fi feels lazy and too cgi-heavy :/
@@alexp601 yep, mostly iterative with little to no imagination on display.
@@alexp601 i agree....relying on spectacle instead of story
I watched Terminator 2 daily for weeks while going through a bad bout of depression back in the 90’s. Oddly I also enjoyed Superman 2 the same way.
Also Godfather part 2 and Mad Max 2.
Watching this as a 10 year old for the first time in 1989 literally made my jaw drop! As a 43 year old now, I still watch it every now and then and it is probably my favourite film of all time
sadly I watched the special edition version on VHS first when it came out for my 13th birthday party with my mates, then could never find it again for years and only had the theatrical release ever on tv in the UK and in shops, it blows my mind that then cut so much out, but i guess theatre time constraints?
My dad took me to see it in theaters when I was 15 in 1986. It was insane on the big screen.
Yes, it’s definitely in my top 5, but the Directors cut!
It's definitely in my top 10 favorite of all time. That list includes terminator 2, fight club, no country for old men, hell or high water, the first alien and a couple more.
How were you 43 11 months ago? You're math doesn't track!
Ripley's little head tilt, and the change of her facial expression from scared to "kill mode" before she opens fire in the egg laying room is so awesome.
i think its coincidence, but it mimics the movement of the queen.
oh you want some of this!
That's one of the many reasons why Sigourney was nominated for an AA.
@@SerginhoPMoura She really should have won, but the Academy is notoriously snobby against horror and scifi.
I could totally see that as b-roll like she was getting ready for her take and they just thought it was so awesome they kept it.
I’m surprised you skipped over the “Get away from her, you BITCH!” line. Listen, I was in a theater on the opening weekend of Aliens. When Sigourney delivered that line, the roof blew off that place. Screaming, yelling, hooting, hollering, whistling, high-fiving… the crowd came unglued. It’s the most memorable moment I’ve ever had at a theater.
It's my #1 all time favourite delivered line in any movie. Sigourney put everything into it. I've heard it dozens of times and it still gives me goosebumps.
Must be an American thing, I've never in all my 36 years of going to the cinema seen anyone high five each other in the UK/Ireland while watching a movie.
I remember watching The Phantom Menace on a shitty VHS copy and when Maul is defeated the entire cinema starts hollering and cheering, I found it bizarre and amusing.
@@ProEvoKing It's at least as thrilling as watching men in short shorts kick a leather ball into a net. I mean, come on!
@@ProEvoKing Where I live, people are generally quiet and respectful at the theater. But, sometimes, people can't help themselves. They get so invested in a movie, they have emotional reactions. I witnessed a similar crowd reaction when I saw Rocky IV on opening weekend. When Rocky beat Drago, people were actually standing and cheering.... like they would if they were actually at the fight.
Also saw Aliens in a theater opening night and as the survivors were getting into the sleep chambers, someone up in the front yelled "Oh no, NOT AGAIN!!!!!" The entire place was filled with people that had watched and re-watched Alien and everyone burst out laughing.
Although you might not remember when you first saw Aliens @Heavy Spoilers, I will remember when I did forever since it was the 2nd movie I had ever seen on opening night.
i can't hear "why dont ya put her in charge?" without laughing. he really had most of the best lines in that movie
"He's dead...you're dog meat pal"
Bill Paxton really MADE that movie! All performances were strong but Paxton deserved (but did not get) an Academy Award for his performance!
Bill mocks himself in the commentary track right at that point in the movie.
it's one of the best lines in movie history
@@CountingHouse yah, that one is great haha, always makes me grin :D
Gorman redeemed himself by going back for Vasquez. He could have easily escaped with Risley and Hicks, but instead ran to her aid knowing it would probably cost him his life. “You always were an asshole, Gorman” was high praise from Vasquez. I love the camaraderie.
Gorman’s character redemption. One of the best done on screen.
I liked his character because he wasn't a bad guy or a coward, just really inexperienced and not a good leader. After he apologizes to Ripley, he jumps right into action with the rest.
I think this is one of the reasons the film works so well - the antagonists are realistic. In later installments they are just evil pricks. But in this one, the commission that demotes Ripley seem like real people you would meet in a corporation. Burke is evil - but it is not like he is a devil incarnate, he is just extremely greedy and potentially sociopathic. But Gorman is an antagonist that isn’t evil either, he is just inexperienced but his heart is actually in the right place. When he wakes up he apologizes but also defers to Ripley’s leadership.
Vasquez was always my favorite character next to Hicks
Yeah, I love how even a supporting character like him had a redemption arc. He went from over confident, smug Lt. who thought he knew what was what.....to standing down and allowing Ripley,who was an advisor and an enlisted E-4 ,Hicks to take the lead, even though he had rank and was the only officer deployed. He backed everyone up in the last attack(dropped the ball again by allowing Burke to escape and lock the door. Nobody's perfect.lol) to going back for Vazquez. Vazquez calling him an asshole was her letting him know in their final moment that she had forgiven him....and they locked hands....and gone! His arc showed that Lt.Gorman was simply like many inexperienced officers throughout history and froze at a key moment. He panicked,which is human.....he learned from his mistake and his conscience made him correct his character flaws. He wasn't an evil person or true villain,like Carter Burke! What films made recently have developed their supporting characters the way this movie did?
I saw Aliens before I saw Alien. With the descriptive dialogue and references to the previous movie, I was able to mentally visualize what had happened. Several years later I was finally able to see the original, and it was pretty close to what I imagined had happened. Just another example of how much of a good director/story-teller James Cameron is.
Pretty sure I did the same thing!
Yup, me too!
So did I!
Was. Been a while since he's made a good film.
Shame he's wasted his talents spending over a decade making shitty Avatar movies which cost billions of dollars to produce.
This is my all time favourite action sci-fi film ever. Think I've watched it more than any other film since I was 8.
Yeah it’s a complete banger, Cameron constantly changing Sci-Fi
Probably the same with me with being my most watched movie of all time
Same here. Best action movie ever, according to me.
Same for me. Accidently watched it on tv when I was 6. Nightmare fuel.
Great movie
Cameron's portrayal of marines as having a wide range of personalities actually humanized them and made them more relatable. Had he portrayed them all as Rambo, this would have been the umpteenth movie doing that exact thing. I also kind of think he didn't really mean it when he said that he would have made them look more heroic had he had another chance; I just think he was trying to avoid being labeled "anti armed forces".
unfortunately this movie was the genesis of countless space-marine video games that did exactly what you describe
On a sad note, I saw the actor who played Apone, Al Mathews in an interview several years back, and he had somewhat advanced dementia. It was heartbreaking, because he was probably my #1 favorite actor in the film.
@@DoctorMangler he died several years ago. interesting career, he was an actual marine in vietnam
@@DoctorMangler That's equal parts sad, irrelevant, and weird. In that order.
@@aaizner847 Actually it's exactly relevant, and you're just a little sniveling pissant.
I was a paratrooper, stationed at Fort Bragg in 1986. When I saw it the theater was packed with paratroopers, and we were very vocal and rambunctious in our appreciation for this movie!
Several years later I read the novelization of Aliens (by Alan Dean Foster) [based upon the full script aka the "director's cut"]; just after reading the book A Bridge Too Far (by Cornelius Ryan) about Operation Market Garden in 1944, the largest deployment of paratroopers in history.
I noticed that the names of All of the Marines are shared by historical Paratroopers who participated in Operation Market Garden!
Perhaps it is a coincidence, but it is common to use a literature source to come up with names of secondary characters.
Lieutenant Colonel John Frost was in command of the British Paratroopers at Arhem Bridge. Brigadier Hicks was in command of the British Glider Brigade (or one of the Paratrooper Brigades), there was a Hudson in the 82nd Airborne, a Gorman too. Wierzabowski was in the Polish Paratrooper Brigade, etc.
Several of the names are quite prominent, others very obscure.
Your point is that common last names were also in the 82nd?
@@theengine US 82nd Airborne Division, possibly the 101st Airborne too, definitely the British Paras: Frost, Hicks, and Wierzabowski in the Polish Paratrooper Brigade; at least one German: Dietrich.
Cheers 🍻
Was there a Spunkmeyer??? How about an Apone???
Thats such a good detail. Thank you
Well done, Airborne!
AAtW!
I think Alien and Aliens are both perfect movies, but for different reasons. That's why it's really hard for many people, including myself, to decide which one is "better." You can't really judge them by the same metric, but when you look at each one individually, they both end up being rated perfect. Just my two cents.
Same here. It's like apples and oranges with me. Both different flavors but great nonetheless.
They really Are, 2 different animals, which are both perfect films I think also. Too bad Alien 3 is such a disappointer really.. What I hate about A3 is the depressing beginning... Ripley has to be the most tragic of Any heroine that I can think of. The few moments of Any happiness that she experiences in the movies are with Newt, which is a VERY short time. 😞
@@meloralovesdarkness2495 Alien 3 had some cool ideas, but it was executed so badly.
@@meloralovesdarkness2495 I would have been happy if they let the ending of Aliens complete the Ripley arc and they explored a different aspect of the Alien lore.
And 3 was incredible as well. The premise and the characters. Ending was a bit weird with the Bishop-like character. Other than that - near perfect.
Another great thing about this movie is THERE ARE NO WEAK ACTORS - not a single performance was weak - the minimum bar for all the performances was extremely high - Cameron extracted amazing performances from everyone - Bill Paxton deserved an academy award for this film his portrayal of a panicky blustery space marine REALLY MADE the movie and provided all the necessary humor!!
defo
Disagree. Newt.
Yep, all of the characters in Aliens have their own unique charisma and all of them are remembered. Who remembers any of Prometheus' irrelevant characters?
no weak actors, except Sigourney Weaver, who seems to equate having a uterus is better than having a penis. Both are required to proliferate. GG metoo weaver.
@@dawn8542 child actors dont count. its so rare that they have genuine talent so young. she didnt do BADLY tho... just not amazing.
Al Matthews, who plays Apone, was actually a decorated U.S. Marine in Vietnam. He actually helped trained the other actors in their tactical movements to look more realistic to Marines tactics.
👍 Cool factoid I can annoy friends with upon rewatching.
He was the first Dark Green Marine in the 1st Marine Division in Vietnam to be meritoriously promoted to the rank of sergeant. Semper fi, Sgt. Matthews!!! 🦅🌎⚓️
Damn that’s awesome
@@theelder4797hey fun fact, the definition of factoid is “an item of unreliable information that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact” -description literally taken from google’s dictionary feature
I always wonder if the "look into my eye" was ad libbed because it was a common phrase in the marines "look into my eyes and tell me if you see any concern"
Regarding the suggestion that the marines have come across the Xenomorphs before; I've always understood this to be that they have battled OTHER alien lifeforms before and usually had a pretty easy time of it. "Xenomorph" is just a general term meaning "Foreign Shaped", and not these aliens in particular.
Yeah, I thought that was commonly understood. Xenomorph is just a fancy word for 'alien,' like a scientific Latin name.
@@charlieross4674 Greek, not Latin.
Yea that was always my take too .
Terminology that resulted in " bug hunt " reply and a disappointed mood for the marines.
RE "bug hunt": See the book, "Starship Troopers" by Robert Heinlein.
@@d.ryanwebb1166 Even as a young teen watching the film it seemed obvious that xenomorph was just a generic term for an alien and not a species name. I'm not trying to pretend I'm some kind of intellectual because I'm not, but I was surprised more viewers didn't pick up on the etymology of the name.
A little detail a lot of people may have missed, in the scene when the marines first enter the Xenomorph nest, and Apone tells them to switch to infrared, you see the part when the character Dietrich, who has her infrared visor on, just looks directly at a hidden Xeno. She even states, “Maybe they don’t show up on infrared at all.” before looking away from the Xeno before it grabs her. This little detail was a crucial moment to use in the later Alien vs. Predator films, explaining why the Predators couldn’t initially see the Xenos without changing their visors to a different spectrum.
I just love that shot and the reveal of that xenomorph in the wall behind her. I think most viewers realize it before it starts moving, already being familiar with their appearance.. but it just looks so great blended in there and to your point, she looks right at it before turning back around. Another piece of evidence that the "xenomorphs in Aliens are so dumb compared to the original" argument is moot.
Hicks sleeping during the drop ship sequence is actually a reference to marines being able to sleep even while riding in the most uncomfortable and rough moving transports. This got a huge laugh when I saw it in the theatre while in the Marine Corps in 86. This was an excellent video.
I rides motorcycle, riding as a passenger in any other vehicle I'm out like a light
I always thought it was because he lost consciousness because of the G-force effect but the sleeping part is more accurate, since he's a marine and was most likely trained to not faint in this kind of situation.
It's also shown in direct contrast to Lt Gorman being tensed up because it's only his second combat drop. The experienced corporal vs the green JO, whose lack of real combat experience leads to poor decision making (all done remotely, to boot), which results in a massacre. It's only after he's knocked out and the cool-headed corporal takes over that they get at least some sort of plan going.
Sigourney Weaver completely leads this film marvelously.. she rightly deserved her Academy Award nomination for, this now, iconic role. Everybody was just so good here, too that's what's crazy about it. The entire cast played their roles beautifully and yet, hers stands out the most..she _is_ Ellen Ripley.
THERE IS NO ELLEN, ONLY ZUUL
Who did she lose to?
@@supadupa6891 Marlee Matlin. "Children of a Lesser God"
@@VaderPopsVicodin10 woooow
She sadly in real life is as woke and anti gun as they come...
The Special Edition of Aliens is the perfect film. 40 years later this film holds right up.
And Ripley's journey from Alien and into Aliens is just one of the great all time character arcs, and she's one of the best written characters ever.
re: The portrayal of the Marines. I had just finished a 4-year enlistment in the Corps when this movie came out. The portrayal was pretty damned spot-on. There were blowhards like Hudson. There were ice-cold badasses like Hicks. There were professional lifers like Apone. There were hard-chargers like Vasquez and Drake. Guys just trying to get the job done like Frost. Every Marine in the movie reminded me of somebody I knew. Cameron has nothing to apologize for.
He probably meant that he apologized for interviews where he basically said all of the enlisted were horrible humans, instead of having issues with the people who say back in the Pentagon being those men killed. Kind of like how the anti war movement didn't actually do anything but leave thousands of Marines and Navymen homeless after Vietnam
@@Matt_History i thought the anti war movement was about preventing guys from dying overseas, and either bringing them home or preventing them from being deployed.
The responsibility for following through with caring for vets is and was the responsibility of veterans affairs/the army, isnt it? Isnt that still the issue, that those who run these operations arent providing the resources for the people they are ensuring will need them?
Bill Paxton was an absolute legend in this film. I miss him.
He had the best lines and his delivery was so uniquely perfect
@@deepbluesky6546 There's not a summer that I don't say his line, with his inflection "yeah man, but it's a dry heat"
@@ValEGwangi hahaha
I think we all need to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude for Jennifer Lawrence breaking through the glass ceiling and becoming the very first lead female role in an action movie which paved the way for movies like Aliens...
😜
😂
lets not forget her portrayal of domestic violence (she beat her bloke in Passengers) and rape (she raped her victim in red sparrow)
I don't get the joke sorry.... Did somebody mistakenly say Jennifer Lawrence had the first female action role?
@@MRBJT51 yes... Jennifer Lawrence said it...
Something as simple as the scene where Ripley tries to make herself useful by operating one of the loaders shows you how well the story was thought out. They had to introduce the loader and demonstrate that Ripley knew how to use it, but the scene works so well as Ripley developing a rapport with the marines that we don’t suspect that it’s a plot device.
And when Burke visits her it's also mentioned that she's been running loaders on the cargo docks due to the loss of her license. So it's a slowly building element.
yeah, that scene is perfect, and the loader is one of the ALL TIME most badass and coolest sci fi pieces of all time, and it sets up one of the most badass scenes at the end when it's revealed again
One thing I loved about Aliens the first time I saw it, was the way the marines changed over time. They were introduced as absolute clowns and probable xenomorph fodder, shallow and the type you wouldn't really be upset about if they died. But they very quickly demonstrate that they are real people underneath all the bravado, and that while they may be terrified of the situation they've found themselves in, they're capable of adapting quickly and fighting bravely.
I was sad Apone died so early, but we had Vasquez and "Micheal Been"
Not introduced as clowns. Confidence to the point of arrogance.
Yep, HORRIBLE writers in the 80s. We NEVER learn the important things, things that define WHO people are, like they do today. Who do the Marines have sm3x with??? What's in their Marine jeans? A twig and berries, or an Arby's roast beef? Or NEITHER, like a true non-binary? Or BOTH, like a truly progressive Bud Light drinker?
And who do they rub that crotchRot up against?? And what COLOR is theirs, the MOST important feature and identity of ANY person?!
The only thing we learned that is important was BEHIND the scenes, when we found out that LatinX womXn was actually a HU-WHYTE womXn! This made me cry, and after that, it made me color with my non-hu-whyte Crayons, and after that, I IMMEDIATELY began cancelling this fake, cultural AND skin appropriating LatinX womXn on X. Hopefully the evil African American Elon Musk and his child, X, will lose everything and then get deleted by my loving, peace loving, life loving androgynous allies and comrades. 🌈
@@christophersmith4897Agreed, but I think the OP may have meant something more like class clowns, which could easily apply to at least 3 of the Marines.
@@kingtonsiljockey528Poor Michael Has Been - he never made it to top A list actor, and IMO he's just as competent as the rest of those who did, and way better than the ones who remained at B- their whole careers.
I LOVE the director's cut of Aliens. The robot sentry guns, the early scenes at Hadley's Hope with Newt and her family, the backstory on Ripley's daughter... Great stuff.
I discovered these and the "Dwayne/Ellen" exchange in the 1990 Special Edition Laserdisc(!).
@@Otokichi786 I actually got my hands on a complete draft of the screenplay at a con years ago and got to read the scenes long before the director's cut DVD came along.
I politely disagree. I do think the robot sentry guns vastly improve the pacing of the second act. But all the other additions just turn subtext into text and are superfluous.
@@Otokichi786holy crap laserdisc that takes me back.
@@JasonHaines1974 totally agree, Jason. Get all of that extra touchy-feely crap out of my action movie (it was already a little too touchy feely, imo). I normally feel the opposite, and I'm not a big fan of action movies to begin with, but this one was so well done (in its theatrical form) that I hate to see its near-perfection marred.
34:21 Good god, almost 40 years later this scene is still so badass it gives me chills. Not just the scene itself, but the sound track absolutely MAKES the scene. From the rhythmic industrial hammer-like clanking as the structure collapses around them, crescendoing to the adrenaline racing thumping horns and snare drums as Bishop "floors it", making the ship itself heroic as it protects the protagonists from the plumes of flame engulfing it, its engines revving at full blast just barely keeping it ahead of the destruction, and then it all just ends abruptly and goes silent as the nuclear blast goes off. This movie was an absolute masterpiece.
You know when a movie made that long ago stands up today, it's a masterpiece. (40 years? Jeebus.)
So the song here is actually strongly based on Gustav Holst's Mars movement in his orchestral suite The Planets. Horner was definitely inspired by this, which was written in 1914 and played in full in 1918. For that matter, so was John Williams for Star Wars. Also Black Sabbath's main riff is right out of the same movement. That one piece has influenced cinema enormously. Jupiter has a lot of musical history that proceeds from it as well.
One super nerdy fact: the two smart guns of Vasquez and Drake consisted mainly of the vest and arm of the Steadicam, a stabilizing device for cameras which were actually also used in Aliens. But the interesting fact was, that those two Steadicams we see in Aliens belonged to Steadicam operator John Ward (RIP) who rented them out to the production and couldn`t work on the movie himself because he was busy filming...Full Metal Jacket :-D John Ward, btw, worked on movies like Robin Hood (with Costner), Fifth Element etc., one of the two Steadicams from Aliens is still in use by an american Steadicam operator.
A Steadicam arm with a modified German WW2 MG-42 machinegun with a bunch of motorbike parts attached to it! The two working Pulse Rifles they made for the film were built from a Thomson submachinegun (Tommy gun) with a comibnation of a shortened Remington 870 shotgun with the slide and handguard from a SPAS-12 shotgun to act as the grenade launcher. Really good prop building.
The realism and attention to detail in this movie are beyond belief! I remember when they were de-orbiting from the mother ship, and the pilot, corporal ferro (Collette Hiller) says, "We're in the box, 5 by 5". I learned later as a systems engineer for Iridium that when satellites are in orbit the flight control system tracks a "virtual" orbital box (like staying within the ductwork of a furnace) and 5m x 5m is not abnormally small for a high-precision orbital (or de-orbiting) box! Bravo !!
And I always thought "five by five" was the optimal response to "how do you hear me?". There's a Wikipedia page on Signal strength and readability report.
What I always appreciated about the film is that the special effects were done in such a way that they maintain believability even well into the modern day of CGI. With the exception of a limited few scenes, the viewer is left thinking "how did they make it look so real?!" This remains one of my favorite films of all time.
The only real rough looking part is the drop ship entering the atmosphere, you can just tell it was against a green screen. Everything else is hard to notice unless you're looking for it
And how many 300+ million dollar movies that have been made in the past 10 years will look Fukking AWFUL in a decade, and EMBARRASSING when compared to a then 40+ year old movie.
@@osets2117The electrical storm at the end is pretty rough, too.
@@theelder4797 two things that a simple touch up to the film could fix easily (not saying they should though)
@@osets2117 I've seen some amazing effects touch ups done by amateurs using editing software available to everyone - I agree with you and I am 1000% sure they could make it look near perfect. Depending upon the viewer is where my effects retooling opinion arises: For a modern 20 year old who has never seen Aliens, I would support making the drop and end scenes up to date with the best modern abilities, mainly because that end scene really rips me from suspension of disbelief, and I think that would have a big effect on the emotional immersion on the young, modern viewer.
I think cutting the sentry guns for the theatrical release was a huge mistake. They completely explained why so few xenos ultimately penetrated ops. And why there were virtually none left when Ripley infiltrated the hive at the end.
There was quite a few xenos in ops though. Hudson and Vasquez between them must have taken out 20.
@5wheels178 true, but the original xeno population was probably at least 100 (probably more) with 157 colonists to impregnate (Newt didn't, that's why I subtracted one from the population). This is taking into account some colonists likely dying in combat with the xenomorphs.
The main reason there aren’t as many is because the hive is in the atmospheric processor, which Ripley flies to aboard the dropship, so she gets a head start on all the xenos still making their way back to the hive from Hadley’s hope.
from all deleted scenes in all movies, is this scene best. i dont understand, why this storyline with automatic killing machine was cut.
Yeah, the robot sentries were another "Scare the Shit out of the Audience" effect like the scanners or the supposed safety of high-firepower guns! The marine platoon hears the sentries firing on aliens in the hallway and monitors them and you think "Okay this is it they're winning" until the sentries use up 400 ROUNDS OF AMMUNICATION AND RUN DRY !!!
Bill Paxton is perfect in this movie. It's crazy that anyone would have imagined his portrayal to be to be disrespectful to the military. His whole character arc starts with being a short timer (a very real thing in the military) and end with being a grade A bad-ass when it comes down to the line and sacrificing himself. Hudson is the most relatable character in the movie, and that's largely due to Bill Paxton's portrayal.
Ripley going back for Jones in Alien and then doing the same thing for Newt in aliens has always seem, to me at least, to be a reference to the power and strength of the maternal instinct. Just like how a mother bear will put herself into tremendous danger and take on anything that stands between her and her offspring Ripley has the same response to those she feels that same connection to. She wasn't able to do this for her biological daughter and so that drive is even stronger as she has a need to atone for her failure as a mother. I know a few people who thought going back for Newt was stupid and added nothing to the film but in doing so and confronting the queen we found the queen had the same response, almost like it is universal. So we were left in a mexican stand-off between two mother bears, both of which were willing to do whatever it takes to protect their young. When they weren't able to do this they wrought vengeance upon the one who stood in their way.
Except Ripley was not written as a woman in the first film.
Well said EnjoymentBoy!
And then in Alien 3 she was the mother of an Alien queen inside her.
You need to see Breakfast at Tiffany's...
Or just an example of someone doing the right thing
Saw it in theaters when it came out (I'm 54) and I still remember every second to this day. Great video, sir!
This movie is one of my all time favorites! This film and Predator forever molded my fascination of sci-fi films/shows.
Idk if cryo has been done before this in movies, but the whole idea that Ripley spent her daughter's whole life in a cryo pod, especially that scene where she promised to be home for her 11th birthday absolutely blew me away, and crushed my soul.
Cutting the scene with her daughter has to be one of the biggest mis steps in a film. It provides so much more depth to the story and motivation. I was surprised Cameron allowed it to be cut.
It wasn't really a mis-step because as it was edited, it was decided that Ripley would not be portrayed as having strong regret or emotion over a situation she couldn't change. They decided to make it something she would briefly consider, then realize it was no use to try to connect to someone she never knew as an adult. It was too sticky of a plot point to work in a more action based movie. I wish I knew which edition with which commentary I heard that in, but I'm fairly certain one of the writers said it, or it was a writer that Cameron was quoting as his words better explained the decision. Sorry about that.
@@bigguy7353 That makes sense for a cinema release and trying not to be too wishy-washy with the action theme. I'm glad they added it to the director's cut though, because it really brings home the fact that, to Ripley, it's only been a matter of weeks or maybe months since she last saw her 10 year old daughter. She's only out of hyper-sleep for a day in the first movie and then maybe one or two days before she finds out she's been gone for 57 years. Add to that whatever time she spent working on the Nostromo prior to the first movie. So that feeling of regret would still be strong.
It was kind of heartbreaking for me when I realised Ripley's relative timeline from the start of the first to the end of the second movie is only a week or two? Maybe up to a month since I don't think there's any specifics on how long she was working the power loaders before they lose contact with LV-426.
Probably another example of Cameron's preference to axe entire subplots if the movie is running long (remember, action movies were generally shorter back then than they are now), rather than picking away at individual scenes until they become pointless.
He did it in The Abyss too for example by axing the cold war surface tension scenes/big wave sequence, and also much of the husband/wife bickering (to the point that you don't even know why Ed Harris goes through most of the movie with one of his hands dyed blue... lol)
@@pcppbadminton There are some stated times that can give an idea of how long events took during the film. But there is also a lot of room left for assumptions.
It is not mentioned how long Ripley spent recovering in the hospital so an assumption of 2 or 3 days could be made.
It is established that Burke is the one who sent the message instructing the colony to find the alien derelict, something he couldn't have done before Ripley provided her testimony.
The colony administrator states that it takes 2 weeks to recieve a reply to any messages sent to Earth so assuming Burke sent the message on the same day, it would have been read by the administrator one week after Ripleys' testimony.
It isn't stated how long it took the surveyers to find the derelict but it can be assumed that it was on the other side of the moon given that the colony had been there for years and noone noticed it. So a few days, maybe a week to find it?
With normal communication traffic coming in from the colony, noone on Earth would have suspected what would be happening over the next few hours and days. It is later stated that they had lost contact with the colony as opposed to recieving a distress call.
Burke would have expected an update around 3 weeks after sending his message and when none came he would have made the request to investigate. In order to keep his true intentions secret, he would have had to wait at least another week in case the loss of communication was a technical problem.
It isn't stated how much time passed between Ripley being told of the communication failure and her deciding to go investigate so I'll assume a couple more nightmares.
The Sulaco was probably dispatched the next day given the fairly small force being sent, arriving at LV-426 17 days later. The 17 days is stated by Hicks as being how long help would take to arrive after being declared overdue.
It isn't stated how long the events at Hadleys Hope last but could be assumed as one maybe two days so the survivors are back on the Sulaco and in hypersleep by day 19 of the mission.
I think it's safe to say that Aliens takes place over roughly 52 days at the longest, 34 days if Burke starts the investigation immediately after not recieving his expected update and Ripley only spends one day in the hospital and one day making the decision to go.
It also sort of showed a little more of Burke's character, the cut with the scene is much better.
The head tilt and facial expression Ripley has when an egg opens just as her and Newt are leaving the Queens Brood Chamber like “oh, you B I T C H!” And almost like, “really? We had a deal.” Then absolutely roasts everything... hands down, my favorite moment in the whole franchise.
my favorite scene too. bad ass level 1000!
But I don't think the Queen opened the egg. They just kinda do their own thing
The way I see it, since so many of these eggs have caused problems throughout the first two films, it's basically her chance to shut it down for once. I've always read it as "Oh, no you don't."
@@seth8629 The eggs do open on their own even when a Queen isn't around. That's how most people get infected with facehuggers in places, where a Queen left a lot of eggs, but isn't around anymore. But there's one thing you might not know (or simply forgotten) about the Queen. She can still influence them through pheromones. It's also how she can control her drones, lead them to places, guide them around the nest, make them do, whatever she wants apart from their usual duties in the hive, in emergencies, as personal guards and stuff. So she could certainly stop the eggs from opening, if she wanted. Seeing that the egg opened and the Queen let it happen, could be perceived as breaking the "deal" with Ripley.
Ya, I've always interpreted it the same way. It's like she was willing to not torch them in order to escape but once that egg opened that look.on her face was like a moment of clarity like "really? Wtf was I thinking, of course I need to eradicate everything here."
Excellent. The only thing you really left out was that the joke about Vasquez signing up because she thought the mission was about "illegal aliens" was true to life. Jenette Goldstein auditioned for the film for that very reason. However, l think we can all agree that she was a total badass and played Vasquez better than anyone else could have.
my fave line was when paxton askes her if she was ever mistaken for a man. her response of, "no, have you?" was an epic burn
@@ralphharrison6622 best line of the movie.
It's crazy that people heckle Janette Goldstein for "brown facing" 😳
@Ralph Harrison that was an old line from a film in the 30s I have to remember the title.
@Logan W it was a very different time in America and in Hollywood back then.
One of my favorite moments is the Newt yawn. When the remaining people gather to make a plan on how to defend themselves, there’s a cut to Newt watching and she yawns. “Well, I’ve never seen this plan before.”
Love this movie. Always will. I don't think we'll get anything of this caliber for a long time.
Top Gun: Maverick belongs as an action classic that rivals even surpasses the original. Mad Max Fury Road is also a banger in that category.
As far as Sci Fi Action Horror goes? . It honestly hasn't been matched yet..
District 9 gets an honorable mention though.. but that's a more intimate and personal film.. with 2 protagonists vs the evil corporation and Merc crew..
Not with woke activists on every movie crew.
@DemiGod_Scrub I think they mean as far as woke activists infecting every writing room, production meeting, idea session and even reviews at this point.
@@bigguy7353 I like how these people insist on having strong independent women in the lead in just about every film as if it never happened before (always at the expense of men who are often portrayed as cowardly, incompetent or just downright evil. Presumably they've never watched Alien/Aliens, Terminator/Terminator 2 or Tomb Raider. It seems Indiana Jones is next for the woke executioners block.
3 points I want to make...
Ripley didn't really go back for Jonesy. She panicked and dropped him when she saw the alien was blocking her path to the shuttle. After failing to abort the self-destruct sequence, she had no choice but to go back and happened to find Jonesy where she had left him. She obviously cared enough for the cat to make sure he wasn't left behind, but it's not comprable to saving Newt from the hive.
The queen didn't back out of the negotiation. The egg was simply triggered by the presence of a potential host, which was unfortunate for all aliens involved.
That sound at end of the credits is not of an egg opening up, but of a facehugger skittering across the floor. Listen to it in stereo and you can hear it move from one side of the screen to the other.
Overall I enjoyed the video!
👏👏👏👏
i always thought that the Queen must have known it needed to save itself there. SO i would like to believe the Queen would have let them escape (it wouldn't know about the impending thermo nuke explosion ).
Great video! it's probably been mentioned already but at 44:00, the reason another elevator comes down is Ripley smashes the elevator call button because she's in such a hurry to leave - just like we all do when waiting for one. Pretty much every action in this film has consequences, which is why it is such a masterpiece still today.
Cheers!
Alien and Aliens are among the greatest movies of all time. It's really a shame they never followed up on them and turned them into a franchise.
One of the things I always appreciate with this movie is how Collette turns around to see the alien, and she doesn't do the cliche scream (not even cliche really, quite understandable lol), instead she pulls out her sidearm and fires.
Well she attempts to pull out her sidearm anyway
@@BLAlley you're posting this because the Pentagon in 2003 , trying to sell a war to the world and the American created a pure fiction cover story about Jessica Lynch to make people like you happy so that you would support the war. Copy. "glamour I'm Jessica Lynch and here's my real story". and "the guardian the truth about Jessica Iraq" One at a time and paste them into a search engine. There was nothing bad ass about Jessica Lynch letting herself be discovered by the rescue mission. Everything you've heard about Jessica Lynch was a made-up cover story because they wanted women to support the war. And just in general have a positive warm sounding war story for the media.
Back when a well written character CAN be a strong woman, instead of modern trash where they have to make men look worse to prop them up, and those VVomen are just pretending to be men, all the way down to getting the girl into bed.
@@theelder4797 But let's be honest: Most men in the movie aren't really portrayed as capable. At least not when you take their job description into account.
I didn't realize the post credit scene was actually just an audio clip of an egg hatching. That is really understated awesomeness... very impressive, and forward thinking.
Ha an easter Egg.....do you think it's the facehugger from A³?
I have seen this film scores of times and if it weren't for your comment, I would not have known about an end credit scene. Thank-you
Post credit stuff has been done for decades, even before Alien.
@@w4tkn It wasn't a scene, so..... 🤷♂️
Wait a minute…what? There’s a post credit scene?!?! On my top 5 fave movie of all time that I’ve watched dozens and dozens of times? That ain’t possible
Two small details I really like: One is when Burke and Gorman visit Ripley. Ripley pours two cups of coffee for them and Gorman simply holds his and then puts it down on the table while Burke helps himself to the kitchen to add creamer on his. Two small character details just to show you their personalities. The other one is when Ripley and Newt stumble into the Alien Queen. Ripley tilts her head before burning up the eggs, and later the Alien Queen does the same head tilt when she sees the other elevator open before her and uses it to follow Ripley and Newt.
Actually, I always thought that the queen's head tilt encountering the dual elevators was like a dog tilting its head trying to understand something. There is another scene where the queen moves its head like a dog moving aggressively with its ears back. That's what I saw anyway.
It made Gorman already look a little tense or stiff in this situation. Like he came there for a purpose and can't quickly switch to casual.
If you want to see him again in the Alien universe go play Alien: Isolation where he's Marshal Waits. ;-)
Her "head tilting" expression, is her "Killing mode" turned on.
I was completely floored when you mentioned at the end that this movie was nearly 40 years old. I remember watching this as a teenager way back when we first got HBO on cable in the 90s. I never grew up knowing the first movie. Even so, this one still stands as a perfect standalone in itself. I may be one of the minority that actually liked the theatrical cut better than the director's cut though. Leaving out the whole business with Newt in the beginning just leant more mystery and heightened the eeriness of the whole situation. And as much as I love Mr. Paxton (god rest his soul), leaving out his extended chat during the drop was better too. You get enough of his attitude better portrayed in the rest of the movie. Anyway, loved your breakdown and easter eggs! Great video!
I think, the creative triumph of Aliens is that despite swapping the genre, it still feels like an authentic continuation of the narrative established in the first movie. Mostly because it is so faithful in tone and theme. The fact that Aliens is more action oriented almost feels like a mere technicality, that doesn't really take away from the feel of it all. That is also, why you easily could watch these movies back to back and be excused to believe, that the entire storyline was pre-planned just like this from the get go. It is just so seamless.
The third part has some good ideas at it's core and atmospherically recreates many of the strengths of the first two movies. And I always felt that a self contained prison was actually a clever idea for the setting. But the troubled production and wonky ass CGI definetly brought the 3rd part down a fair notch. Even though, I liked it as a cannonic ending.
Everything that came after that though, I could happily do without. Ressurection was just plain stupid and Prometheus as well as Covenenant feel very pretentious. They also give explanations that do more harm than good, leaning heavily on deus ex machina nonsense, which just feels very lazy and underwhelming.
I actually liked Resurrection more than Alien 3, lol.
But really I would only ever suggest someone watch the first 2 and stop.
@planescaped I actually like Alien 4 till the last act, and even that, while pretty bad, can be explained to some extent.
That being said Alien (1) and Aliens (2) are totally different league.
Keep these retrospective reviews coming! They are great! I’d love to see one on the Bladerunner movies or maybe even Paul Verhovens other movies like RoboCop or Starship Troopers since you already did one for Total Recall
All coming soon
Oh yes starship troopers rewatching years later I see all the nazi easter eggs
@@davyrobin4 ironically enough it’s more disturbing when you realize how it’s more so about America than Nazi Germany. Or rather colonialism, fascism and how propaganda brainwashes people into thinking their way of life is better compared to others. All of which just builds off of RoboCop and Total Recall’s themes in a nice little trilogy, so to speak
I always watch those movies around American Independence Day, nothing says America like propaganda and violence😂
Starship Troopers. Yes please.
"I'm doing my part!" 🦗🪲🕷️🪳
One of my all time favorites! My dad rented and recorded it on VHS. We used to watch it all the time when I was a kid. I have many great memories associated with this film. ❤
I seen the movie Aliens for the first time when I was stationed at Fort Knox during the late 80's. I didn't even knew they made a sequence until someone told me in the barracks and ask me if I want go to see...yeah. This movie was beyond its time especially not having CG available during that time.
Now I wish they would make another Alien movie about how the Colonizers fought against the Aliens and making Hope the last surviving member left alive
Watching this movie when I was a kid, I was so relieved that they turned down the sheer terror to make room for turning up the action. The xenomorph is the all time scariest plot device of all time, and I love it. Now my daughter has begun collecting the McFarlane toys and when her friends come over I definitely enjoy the initial discomfort they experience when they see alien action figures and Huggy Wuggy stuffies.
I saw that someone made a Covid mask carrier in the detailed likeness of a face hugger. It was awesome!
When I rewatched The Descent I noticed many scenes that are subtle references to the Alien movies. One girl standing under dripping water like Brett, another one crawling through a tight space with the camera pulled in front of her, like Bishop, reaching out and almost managing to grab the arm but she eventually falls down the hole like Newt, the monsters face getting close to the protagonist like in Alien 3 and probably even more...
For me my fav scene/detail has always been the non-verbal communication between the 2 mom's when Ripley runs in to the sea of eggs. The "Let us go or I burn your shit to the ground" shot over the port bow with the flamethrower was absolutely brialliant!
Paul Riser had played 2 nice guys successfully in My Two Dads and Mad About You - TV series. Casting wise it harkens back to casting Anthony Perkins in Psycho. Perkins up to that point always played an innocent type-cast in many westerns and TV shows. His Psycho character , much like Burke don't get revealed until later in the film to be evil. Its one of those things where you kind of had to be around then to get it. Another brilliant choice.
I came here to post just that. Also wanted to mention that in the first film, John Hurt was the most well known actor of the cast so him being killed off in that way and thus not making it to the end, was also a subversion of the audience's expectations at the time.
Mad About You was done in the 90's. This is 5 -6 years before that
You missed out how Hudson has a small character ark of from being a cocky coward to going down standing his ground and taking out a bunch of aliens like a boss in the end.
Love your videos
Yeah he arked the most - from show off to coward to self sacrificing hero. Hicks is the best soldier after Apone but Hudson safes the day (at least for the next 5 seconds)
Also the fact that it's said that Bill Paxton was worried people would hate Hudson and was floored that he was so many peoples' favourite character (including me). "Oh you want some of this? F&*K YOU!" Brilliant.
As much as this is a great arc, it's not an easter egg or a hidden detail. We all got it. That's why we love his character so much. This vid is about stuff that we may have missed. I don't think many of us missed this though!
Hicks is the Scarecrow. Bishop is the Tin Man. Hudson is the Cowardly Lion.
Much like the Cowardly Lion, Hudson starts with a false bravado. He gets exposed as a coward, only to eventually find his courage.
Hicks is called a grunt, but helps develop the plan to survive. He comes up with the idea to find Newt with the tracker.
Bishop is stoic and aloof. But in the end he risks himself to rescue Ripley & Newt when he could havw abandoned them.
@@ericmeckl8760 That's a really cool take.
The one great scene you left out IMO was the scene between Ripley and Newt when Ripley asks her what her dolls (head) thinks. Newt replies :"She doesn't haven't thoughts Ripley, she's just a piece of plastic." Just shows how the reality of what she was going through had made this little girl so practical and aware of the situation.
I remember seeing this the first time in the theater. The main thing I came away with was how I was on the edge of my seat for the final 45 mins of the movie. Cameron was a master at sustaining tension without letting it become tedious.
The point of the cigarette was that the long ash showed that she was just sitting there, despondant, and not even capable of smoking, or flicking the ash
I cannot tell you how absolutely lucky I am to have seen this movie in the theaters when it came out. I was 14, and I must have seen this 8 times in the summer of 86.
Lucky you - I only saw Ghandi once & Spies Like Us twice...
(I know that doesn't relate but it's what I thought ;) )
LET's ROOooCK!!!
1972 babies represent!
I saw this in the cinema and when Ripley is in the power lifter and says to the queen 'get away from her you bitch' The whole cinema cheered.
One of the few good things my dad ever did... he took me to see this. I was 10
Cool I was the same age (child of 72) but in the UK the cinemas were really strict about age limits.
I still watched the film so many times but on VHS
Aliens isn't just one of my favorite sequels, its easily one of my favorite movies of all time, everything they did with this movie was perfect, its truly timeless, no matter how many times i watch the film it never gets old, i actually own multiple versions of the directors cut and i wish so badly that they would release an updated directors cut that includes the rest of the extra scenes not found in the current directors cut. This movie is a masterpiece imo.
Just a word on the auto-loader that I think you may have missed. The Power Loader in the film was a full-scale prop constructed around stuntman John Lees, who was concealed inside, immediately behind Sigourney Weaver. Constructed from aluminium, fiberglass and PVC plastic, the finished machine weighed around 600 lbs and included hidden counterweights disguised as machine components to help balance it. Even so, owing to the suit's weight and bulk, it had to be either suspended from wires (concealed within the radio antennae on the suit's shoulders) or mounted on a counterbalanced crane for filming. It featured electrically operated claws, although the various hydraulic systems on the arms and legs were cosmetic only. The tandem design allowed Sigourney Weaver to be in the operator's seat at all times, while Lees controlled the suit from within.
sounds like you may of worked on it?, John Richardsons team in the UK made it, alot of it was lightweight vac forms. There is a funny story about a balloon..
@@multirevelator No, I didn't work on it (wish I did!), but I have a fascination for practical effects, and this movie was full of them! I have quite a few books on Alien, Aliens and H.R.Giger.
With modern computers and balance controls, a thing like this could probably be build in real. But its not an efficient design to move cargo around.
I've read that the Power Loader was so convincing that construction companies contacted the studio to find out where they'd gotten them!
@@Otokichi786 Well, I did not know that. However, I'm not surprised!
Fantastic review. Incredible movie that was amazing to see in the theater.
I first saw this in the balcony section of a very old and cavernous theater a few months before it was closed for renovations. It was a midnight show on a rainy night, and my buddies and I basically had this forlorn balcony section to ourselves. There was audible dripping emanating from dark recesses in the rafters above our heads. Maybe the most intense theater experience of my life.
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I was thinking you should do an Alien 3, but if you had not seen it, well, do yourself a favor and don't. It's better that you never see it.
You repeated mention how "cocky" and excited the Marines were in a negative light. What would you rather have? A timid, nervous, and scared Military? How about frightened Fighter Pilots? Or timid Submarine crews? Being cocky or confident is a way to psyched for something hard and/or dangerous. It happens in a lot of fields where things are harder than making TH-cam videos.
These democrat abortion ads need to stop!!! Freaking every video gives me 1 or so those ads....which they just "cry he won't let us kill babies whenever we want for our rituals. Plus we love to lie."
Regarding Horner's music, he lifted a LOT of his themes from Holst's The Planets. Give Mars a listen and tell me that's not an inspiration.
I'll sub.
Great catch with Dallas working for the Tyrell Corporation.
And that Cartwright is trans?! 😂🤷🏻♂️
Aliens my All-time favorite movie. Best sequel ever made, best sci-fi story, best acting. Stands the test of time. Thanks for the revisit. I usually watch this movie once a month sometimes more
LOL! I loved your breakdown. I don't get why other critics thought the marine's calling out a "bug hunt" was in reference to a possible encounter with the xenos... The context was that it was either a "rescue mission or a bug hunt" and the mention of the creature made them see it was the latter. I'm happy you weren't one of these critics who overthink things.
I was really impressed with the foley soundscape during the power loader fight. After a massive, center of gravity shifting punch, you hear the power loader taking a few baby steps to ensure it and Ripley don't fall over. It really cemented the illusion that it was a huge and powerful machine.
I love the third movie in the series, where the crew come back to Earth, Hicks takes a medical retirement, and Newt is raised as the ultimate badass by her new adoptive parents and synthetic uncle.
Would have been a better movie than alien 3
Right?! And I also liked the therapy scenes
Check out our breakdown of ALIEN here - th-cam.com/video/yn7lSsE-sA0/w-d-xo.html
There are NO EASTER EGGS in this film. Easter eggs were not a thing in the 80's, 90's, 00's etc. Stop with the bollox mate.
Alien Covenant is actually on c4/tv tonight. ✌️
Little known fact Paxton met his wife in Richmond whilst they were filming in London at the now deconstructed Acton Power station which was also used as Axis Chemicals in Batman 89.
Understand that James Cameron knows NOTHING about being in the Military in general, and about being a Marine in particular. So all of the Vietnam and Military related stuff is just HIS opinion about things he had very little or no actual knowledge about. But I'm glad he acknowledges these aspects in that Film making class.
Semper Fidelis.
Jeez, Truth mate chill oot. I had never noticed much of this and am only 13 mins in. The crossword and Lambert already are new to me. And Red Dwarf!!!
Subbed Heavy 👊 Nice MC chief 😎
Aliens was the first one I saw of the franchise. I was 12 or so and it was on late night TV and I was determined to see it. I remember the tense feeling of turning on the family tv at midnight when I should have been in bed and asleep, to cover the light I used my big blanket to cover the screen like a tent and turned the volume nearly all the way down (this was when tvs had knobs) and I got so sucked into it I had forgotten myself and turned up the volume just before the whole place was going up, I can't remember if I woke anyone up but I know I got in trouble for sure. Still even the cut up tv version was amazing
Fun little fact. When Hudson says that Vasquez thought they said illegal alien and signed up, this is in reference to her audition for the role. The actress that played Vasquez knew she was auditioning for a role in the movie "Aliens", but she didn't know what it was about. She thought it was about illegal aliens crossing the border, so she showed up to the audition in a dress, thinking she was going to audition to be a Mexican woman. Kinda funny, considering the type of person Vasquez is in the movie.
The actress is a pale ginger white woman irl
Kinda tough to buy that considering she had to have been told by her agent what she'd be auditioning for prior to going in.
No fucking way lol
@integral "Since Goldstein didn't have an agent, that was all the information that she had to go on. While she had seen the film "Alien," she did not know that they were doing a sequel, so she figured that it was for a film about immigration [...] So she showed up at the audition wearing "high heels and lots of makeup, and I had waist-length hair." -cbr
Another fun fact she played John Conner's Foster mom in Terminator 2 and she was the mom putting her kids to bed when the ship was sinking in Titanic
I remember seeing this at the cinema when it first came out. There was such excitement about it coming and it was the last film I saw with my dad before he died. He observed that the scary thing about Alien is that you don't know where the alien is, and the scary thing about Aliens is that you do know where they are...but there's nothing you can do about it. I still remember the audience reaction when RIpley takes refuge from the explosions and then looks round to find she's surrounded by alien eggs. At that point the air in the cinema became filled with collective gasps and uncomfortable murmuring - and then giggling when everyone realised they were all appreciating how awful a moment it was.
She isn’t “overly masculine.” She’s a badass marine.
not “overly”, “overTly”- very different words. “Badass Marine” is very traditionally an *overtly masculine* archetype
Aliens, Terminator & T2, True Lies, Titanic, and the Avatar franchise... what a filmography from Cameron. Would have to say that T2 is my favorite. So groundbreaking. Remember seeing it in the theater, and people were literally gasping at the special effects, and cheering on the action.
Don’t forget The Abyss
Avatar was ass
Aliens was the first movie that ever really stuck with me as a kid. my parents were awesome, and ratings meant nothing to them. at 7 years old I was running around building tree forts with my friends and playing aliens until dark every night. this movie shaped my childhood and sticks with me to this day. when I'm feeling bad.. watch aliens. i can honestly say over my life I've seen this film over 500 times. that's at least 47.57 full days of my life spent watching this masterpiece. I love Jim Cameron's films. I really wish he would step back and teach the next gen of film makers and writers how to build a believable world. he could be this generation's Roger Corman, like Corman did with him.
This is one of the best films ever and Weaver deserved a Oscar. Bill is amazing too RIP. This And T2 Are How To Make Sequel. Cameron is a genius.
Cameron had such talent that I think he could’ve taken a bum off the street and made them into an Oscar winning performance. He truly was a king in his earlier career imo
@@captaincrunch1707 Will love if Cameron came back to direct a new Alien Film.
The fact that we are still so into this movie so much so that we are still talking about it nearly 40 years later says everything.
Can't get enough of these types of vids on old classics
Thank you
@Heavy Spoilers
Ya really awesome. Have you heard of Roger Aeyer and his breakdowns?
Also Jay Dyer. Her wrote esoteric Hollywood.
Ive seen this film probably 60 times, love it to bits. I do prefer it over alien, not taking anything away from the first one, i just love the action and characters in the second. The xenomorphs are just terrifying....they are the only extra terrestrials that have actually given me nightmares.....and thats cool. I love all the little titbits of info youve found too.....like lambert being trans?? I never knew that, or even noticing hicks mimicking vasquez in "where they are" love learning all this new stuff after all this time. Keep up the good work paul
You mention that Lt Gorman is the only one of the marines to be called by their first name. In the Special Edition, we also learn Hick's first name is Dwayne, as he and Ripley share a small moment just before Ripley goes to rescue Newt. But that got me thinking about the first names of the other marines, and in the list of 12 marine names you show at about 19:40, no less than 10 of them have the same first initial as the actor portraying them. The two that don't follow this pattern are the two we hear the first names of in the film, Hicks.D portrayed by Michael Biehn, and Gorman.S being played by William Hope.
Apone.A -> Al Matthews, Ferro.C -> Colette Hiller, Vasquez.J -> Jenette Goldstein, Drake.M -> Mark Rolston, Spunkmeyer.D -> Daniel Kash, Dierich.C -> Cynthia Dale Scott, Frost.R -> Ricco Ross, Wierzbowski.T -> Trevor Steedman, Crowe.T -> Tip Tipping, Bishop.L -> Lance Henriksen.
Weaver was nominated for best actress at the Oscars for this role. She should have won.
Love these older movie breakdowns. Could watch for days. Thanks, brother!
My favorite movie.
There is a detail i have not heard much talk about. Which is 'How the Aliens got in' on the marines. Ripley says mustve missed something, hicks replies 'we didnt miss anything.'
But when they were looking at the blueprints to secure the facility, they were talking about all the ways in. It goes into Burkes face only. And you can tell by his face he knows they DID miss something.
He knows the layout of these facilities. Which is also proven because when go over the blueprints, they passed a point they were looking for...Burke gestures as if to say 'hey you passed it' but Hicks called it out first bt saying 'no..pan back.'
I always chalked it up to Hudson missing something with prepping the setup, since he was put in charge of it and was still panicked only just calming down as pe Ripley's orders.
Hudson was panicked. He wasn’t the badass he pretended to be, but was accomplished when it came to technical problems (which is way apone asks him to run bypasses to get in. And why Ripleytrust him to go over the layouts).
Ultimately, Hudson out of everybody wanted to make sure they didn’t get in.
This is an incredible breakdown. I saw this movie when it first came out on VHS and it completely blew my mind so much so that its my favorite film to this day. There are so many details you can see in the blu-ray or streaming formats as compared to the Extended Version Laser Disc on a CRT monitor. In a way it was even more tense as the scenes played so much darker. Later in life I did finally see the film on both 35mm and a 70mm blowup. It's also hard to imagine now with all the bloated 3 hour plus movies today but back then Cameron had to trim the film down otherwise he would have lost an additional screening at the end of everyday. Many films have tried to replicate the vision of this film and pretty much none have ever surpassed it. I often wonder how is this the same guy who made the Avatar films? Again, brilliant breakdown on one of the best genere films ever made.
Still one of my favorite movies. Got to meet Lance Henrickeson. Talk about this movie for 10 minutes. He said he got sick off the goop from the final battle, but didn't tell James Cameron cause he didn't wanna loose the pay
Very awesome breakdown! The length was amazing
Haha cheers
That's what she said.
I saw Alien as a 10 y.o. kid in '79 which made the long walk home through the woods at night....interesting. Then, with Aliens tied directly to the first, and with the action and acting, it was GENIOUS! Alien is still absolutely my GOAT Sci-Fi but I have love for the ENTIRE series. Thanks for the breakdown, I saw a couple of things in here that I hadn't ever noticed (the harpoon gun in the door of the lifeboat FI). I will def check out your channel from now on!
I’m 45 years, absolutely love both “Aliens” & “Wrath of Kahn”, seen both of them many times, and can’t believe that I didn’t pick up on the matching scores!!!
I always thought there was a link, I always watch both of these films when they're on, and this has confirmed it for me.
Me too! I completely missed it! Both very serious moments but completely "alien" to each other and that's why the score wasn't apparent.
And there's the bit where Ripley is on the gantry at the end when Bishop is trying to pick them up in the dropship appeared in Die Hard when Al shoots Gruber- it's so weird how there are these little crossovers.
@mattl3729 I'd quite forgotten about that, but I also liken it to Star Trek II, probably because of its slightly more softer orchestral sound?
But yeah, thanks for the reminder on that!
I was 12 years old when Alien came out. I went to see it ALONE in the theater. My dad was supposed to pick me up, but he passed out, so I had to walk home by myself in the dark. I was so fuxking scared the entire way and every tiny sound I heard I just knew it was an alien. I hate horror movies but I've loved sci-fi horror my whole life.
I love the Alien and Predator movies so much, and this one was my favorite, and I have seen this dozens of times. This was a great breakdown.
I love that you're looking back on the classics Paul.
Cheers to the twins!🍺🍺🍺
Thank you
I think the only part I could have done without was the restored colony scenes added to the front of the movie. I liked that I was meeting Newt for the first time along with Ripley and the marines.
When Ripley confronts Burke about planning to sneak two specimens past quarantine, Ripley says 'I just checked the colony log, dated 6/12/79'. I always thought that the '79' was an Easter egg referring to the year in which Alien was released; 1979.
I'm sure someone has already commented on this but, the pic of Amanda Ripley in her 60s that Ripley sees, is an actual pic of sigourney weavers mom in real life. Great idea whoever came up with that. It's very believable when you see it in the film.
2:44 never caught this before. Riley’s hand looks a lot like a face hugger here. This gives a subconscious hint that she is actually “pregnant” with one of the aliens while sleeping in hyper sleep. Creepy!!!
20:01 Napone immediately sticks a cigar in his mouth. He definitely fell asleep in his pod with the cigar in his hand knowing he’d want it right when he wakes up. Just a little bit of character building that you get in really well written stories.
What about in the beginning sitting with her drooping cigarette along with her curved fingers and knuckle? That immediately occurred to me as facehugger shaped. Brilliant if you think about what must have gone into that in terms of both creative thought and execution.
After watching this, my brother and I both had to reconsider our previous sentiment that Alien was our favorite Aliens movie. Brilliant analysis- thank you so much!
I really liked the explanation of Paxton's "bug hunt" phrase. He asks if it's going to be "ANOTHER bug hunt", which I always was very confused about wondering if they'd gone after other alien life forms before. Having the term also mean "snipe hunt" (where you trick an unknowing friend into hunting an imaginary "snipe" animal) actually makes a ton of sense and clarifies a lot. After Alien Isolation though, with Ripley's daughter running into Aliens (and her dead once this movie starts) it always made me wonder if something like this had been encountered before.
Cameron borrowed ideas from StarShip Troopers. hint hint Bug Hunt! How the Drop ship "drops" down into the planet, its weaponary and the fact that women were preferred to pilot because of better hand to eye coordination. You have to admit, there are parrellels.
@@TheJTcreateyou realize starship troopers is WELL after the release of aliens yeah? Smh.
@@mattbarker1411 you realize that Starship Troopers is a book released 1959, right?
@@mattbarker1411 Oh mate. SMH.
@@mattbarker1411 Haha!
One of the best sequels ever made.Super action, the definition of terror and agony, business corruption that tears everything and anything,great adaptation of the brave marines and James Cameron was the proper man for the job.