Cameron's first classic

Aliens. That’s a pretty good summary of this movie, especially if you’ve seen Alien. This is Aliens. A rare sequel that switches genre, increases the enemies and makes another great film.

Alien is a gothic/cosmic horror haunted house film set in space. Less astronauts and more truckers are stuck with an impossibly malicious, impossibly hard to understand, creature that is hunting them.

Aliens is…well more than one Alien. Starship troopers viewed through the lens of a post-Vietnam America.

its all that and more. It isn’t hyperbole to say that Aliens is one of the best action movies ever made, one of the best sequels ever and one of the most influential movies ever.

Starting pretty much where Alien left off we find Ripley’s escape shuttle. She is quickly brought back into the world of the living only to find out she has been drifting in space for 57 years. Despite clearly having PTSD she is roped back into dealing with this Alien and the Company who wants the creature for some reason. This time she returns to the planet with United States Colonial Marines. You might assume that being surrounded by a platoon of futuristic soldiers might alleviate the tension, but Cameron does a really good job of shows us why the xenomorph still poses a threat despite the Marines weapons.

Sigourney Weaver is at her very best here. Ripley hasn’t forgotten her experiences on the Nostromo, they linger with her and influence just about everything she does. Her returning to the planet where they found the eggs is framed to her as a way to overcome that fear but once she knows Weyland-Yutani’s real plans she is quick to anger. Its all believable and puts you in her headspace. She isn’t just fighting the Xenomorphs, she is fighting her own fear.

The rest of the cast do memorable jobs as the marines and corporate representatives. Michael Biehn as Corporal Hicks is the standout and foil to Ripley. He is as pragmatic a capable soldier as Ripley was a flight officer on the Nostromo. He spends time training Ripley on weapons handling and explaining to her how the USMC works. Bill Paxton as Pvt Willaim Hudson has some of the best lines in the movie. Lance Henriksen plays the ship’s android, Bishop and his relationship with Ripley has a satisfying conclusion.

Jenette Goldstien plays Vasquez, a squad machine gunner. Now I know it was 40 years ago but the fact is that Jenette has ancestry from Brazil and Morocco but she does play a brown skinned Latina and I don’t think she identifies as that. I am not here to get into the politics of race and ethnicity in America but I think this should be noted. With all of that said her performance isn’t distracting, Vasquez isn’t a stereotype and is a capable marine in her unit but this has never sat well with me, as I got older.

There is something about comedians playing villains and Paul Reiser does an excellent job as the smarmy corporate executive Burke. Hating him comes as second nature once his true nature comes to light.

Another standout element of the film is the score. James Horner apparently had a condensed time to score the film, a total of 2 weeks. And some of the most memorable parts of the score were written overnight. Cameron and his then wife and producer of the film, Gale Ann Hurd, demanded rewrites to the score. This caused a falling out between Horner and Cameron and they did not work together for years. Despite all that the score is one of the most underrated in all of Sci-Fi and nominated for an Oscar but lost to Herbie Hancock’s ‘Round Midnight score. What Horner does with echoes and a synth influenced orchestral arrangement is haunting, tense and atmospheric it is a score I can listen to, start to finish, as I read, work in the office or around the house.

I love Aliens. Love it. I can quote an embarrassing amount of this movie from memory.