If Alien scared the snot out of you, well, Aliens will… well, it probably won’t.
Aliens. A sequel. And in so many ways, it’s not.
Alien was science fiction. Well, a combination of science fiction and horror. And when it was released, it not only scared the snot out of bajillions of people like me, it also created or at least helped create a whole new flavor of movie. There hadn’t been anything like it, but there’s been plenty like Alien since then.
Same for Aliens, only it ushered in significant changes to American perception of action films and science fiction, and created the fusion of the two. Rambo in space, when that happens, will be a direct descendant of this (and will likely be horrible, too).
This movie is as awesome as the first, and it s as different as can be. There really are only three things in common between these two movies: Ripley, the moon, and the species of Alien. But that’s OK — the story and the directing make up for that.
James Cameron, coming fresh from his success with Terminator, directed this. Ripley, our intrepid hero, survived. She was unfortunately, adrift in space for 57 years. When reunited with civilization, everything she knew from before has come and gone — to include her daughter, who died of old age.
And about her daughter. I’m watching the “special edition” of the movie, and it has extra scenes that are “must see,” I think. It’s how we come to understand that everything from Ripley’s world is gone, and we better understand why she thinks she has nothing to lose be going back to the planet. It’s also where we see Newt and her family, and their discovery of the alien ship, her father getting face sucked (I think that’s the technical term, and we understand how this whole mess gets started — again.
The planet, LV-426, has seen been colonized by terra-formers, folks who have gone there to establish an atmosphere and to make the planet livable to humans. All of this is being done by Weyland-Yutani Corporation, a private firms that has its hands in just about everything and a private firms that, we’ll see, is not above putting business interests before the interests of others.
But as I mentioned, all does not go well. The company loses contact with the folks on the planet, and with Marines in hand, they come calling for Ripley. Will she go back, with the Marines and the company, to see what’s going on? At first, she’s opposed to the idea. But eventually she realizes that she needs to go. She has to go. She needs to know that the one creature from before, the one she blew out of the hatch, was indeed just the one.
Which seems fair, if you ask me. Face her demon, and feel better about it afterward.
She does, though, insist on one thing from Burke, her company contact (played by Paul Reiser, later to be made famous on TV in Mad About You). The one thing? They’re going out there to kill it if they find it, not to bring it back like Ash wanted to do in the first movie.
The band of Marines are a hoot. The represent the whole gamut of military types, from the entirely inexperienced, to the goofballs (Bill Paxton nails the performance), to the gung-ho killers. Oh, to another android, this time played by a new, more advanced model, Lance Henriksen.
Of them all, though, without a doubt my favorite in Gunnery Sergeant Apone, played by Al Matthews. As the senior NCO, he’s the mother hen that looks after everyone, and he’s the guy who looks to make sure that the mission will succeed, especially in light of their weak leadership. Al Matthews, a decorated Marine who served in Vietnam, carries the role very well, and has some awesome lines that, if I had to bet, would improvised.
One of the awesome things about this film is all of their gear. Their weapons are functional — and I don’t mean their use in the story, I mean they really fire blanks. And their vehicle? Awesome. Just awesome. The drop ship is an excellent interpretation of a combat helicopter, and isn’t anything beyond what you might actually expect to run into in combat in our semi-near future. Watching them drop out of orbit looks as exciting as jumping out of an airplane.
But once they get there, well, it all goes to hell in a hand basket. In Alien, there was one alien and its fight was with a shuttle crew. In this movie, there are gobs and gobs or aliens — gobs! — and the fight is with a squad of Marines. In the first movie, there were maybe a half dozen or so humans that could die, and one alien. Much bigger potential body count in this movie.
And much bigger actual body account in this movie.
I guess I should say something about Newt. She’s a kid, she’s pretty well traumatized, and she’s pretty much going to have issues for the rest of her life. She’s survived by adapting to the world around her, a world that she has from one dominated by humans to one dominated by the aliens. She lives in secret and on her own, and she’s hesitant to interact with another group of humans (the Marines) who arrive, because she’s pretty sure they’re going to be killed, too.
The movie has all of the level of suspense that the first movie had, with an awesome addition of the action from the Marines / aliens fight. One of my favorite scenes is when the Marines realize that they aren’t thinking in 3D, that there’s battlespace above and below them that they, Newt, and the aliens can all use.
The other thing I love is the relationship Ripley builds with Newt. Newt trusts no one, and does not want to connect with any of them because she knows they’re all going to be dead. But for Ripley, it’s a chance for her to get over the loss of her daughter. This really only comes out if you see the special edition of the film, because a lot of that got cut for the theatrical version. Watching them lets us see Ripley’s struggle with her own motherhood, and her own loss of her daughter. She might have lost her own daughter, but she’s not going to lose Newt.
Oh, and I love the visuals. In settling into the place, the aliens went to town redecorating, Giger style. This movie has the same visual styling as the first one, it just doesn’t play as much of a role. It’s so much prettier, the sterile nuclear plant, after the aliens have had a chance to pretty things up some.
There’s one more thing worth mentioning. In this movie, we get to see mother. and we are introduced to what becomes one of the main themes for the other movies — for love of mother. When that first burst of flames is fired, down below the cooling tanks, the aliens come out of the woodwork and go on the offensive. They’re doing what they have to, to protect Momma. She’s their queen bee. Tie that in with Ripley and Newt, and it’s the start of the Mother, Mother, Mother theme.
I can watch this movie every six months or so. When I’m feeling all Army and stuff, I can watch it a lot more often. When you next watch Alien, make time to watch this one soon afterward.
(PS — it’s also two and a half hours long. So, prepare yourself.)
