FILM · 1986 · USA
Aliens
- Directed by
- James Cameron
- Runtime
- 137 min
- Studio
- SLM Production Group, 20th Century Fox, Brandywine Productions
921 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Ripley, the sole survivor of the Nostromo's deadly encounter with the monstrous Alien, returns to Earth after drifting through space in hypersleep for 57 years. Although her story is initially met with skepticism, she agrees to accompany a team of Colonial Marines back to LV-426.
921 Interesting Facts About Aliens
Interesting Facts (40)
- #001
- #002
Paul Reiser subsequently appeared in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) for director Tony Scott, whose brother Sir Ridley Scott directed the original Alien (1979). Although she doesn't appear herself, Helen Hunt acted with two co-stars of this film: Reiser on television in Mad About You (1992), and Bill Paxton in the feature film Twister (1996), respectively.
- #003
Jenette Goldstein and Michael Biehn were in this movie and in James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) as well (Biehn in the Special Edition only). Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton were in Cameron's original The Terminator (1984). Goldstein would later appear with Mark Rolston in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989).
- #004
United States Colonial Marines personnel service numbers: * SFC Apone, A A19/TQ4.0.32751E8 * Pt Crowe, T A46/TQ1.0.98712E6 * Cpl Dietrich, C A41/TQ8.0.81120E2 * Pt Drake, M A23/TQ2.0.47619E7 * Cpl Ferro, C A71/TQ9.0.09428E1 * Pt Frost, R A17/TQ4.0.61247E5 * Lt Gorman, S A09/TQ4.0.56124E3 * Cpl Hicks, D A27/TQ4.0.48215E9 * Pt Hudson, W A08/TQ1.0.41776E3 * Pt Spunkmeyer, D A23/TQ6.0.92810E7 * Pt Vasquez, J A03/TQ7.0.15618E4 * Pt Wierzbowski, T A14/TQ8.0.20034E7
- #005
When the film first premiered on ITV in the UK in 1990, all bad language was dubbed over by unknown voice actors. In one scene, Hudson says "The Sarge is gone! Get the f*** out of here!", but in the ITV broadcast it was changed to "The Sarge is gone! Get the hell out of here!!!" and another scene which Ripley says "You know Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them f****** each other over a goddamn percentage." In the ITV broadcast, it was changed to "You know Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fricking each other over a goddamn percentage".
- #006
- #007
- #008
- #009
- #010
- #011
- #012
- #013
- #014
Contains a major spoiler — show
According to Lance Henriksen, during the production of "Aliens", the film Full Metal Jacket (1987) was also being shot at a nearby location. Because of this, the crews of each movie would often gather together for parties. Both films feature US Marines trapped in intense combat situations, and both casts feature a US Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran (R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket and Al Matthews in Aliens). In both films, these actors played sergeants who use the phrase "assholes and elbows". Coincidentally, both actors died in 2018.
- #015
- #016
Like most films, Aliens was not shot in sequence. To achieve greater realism, however, James Cameron filmed the scene in which we first meet the Colonial Marines — one of the earliest scenes in the story — last, so that the marines' camaraderie would feel genuine, since the actors had been shooting together for months.
- #017
While shooting the scene in the duct with Newt, Carrie Henn deliberately kept flubbing takes so she could slide down the ventilation shaft, which she later called a slide three times its length. James Cameron finally persuaded her to stop by telling her she could play as much as she wanted once he had the shot. She did, and he kept his word.
- #018
- #019
Throughout the shoot, whenever Hudson had to swear in front of Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton constantly apologized to her. Henn later admitted she did not care, since she did not really know what the words meant. Years later, at a reunion, Henn had grown so much that Paxton did not recognize her at first.
- #020
- #021
(At about the 21-minute mark) The knife-trick scene was originally to be performed by Bishop alone. According to Lance Henriksen, he suggested to James Cameron that Hudson place his hand on top of his own, and Cameron agreed because Henriksen felt the scene needed something extra. This change was discussed with almost everyone except Bill Paxton. Henriksen also recalls that after shooting the scene he drank for a long night, and that the scene was then reshot because it looked too fake when they sped up the footage. During that reshoot he accidentally caught Paxton's little finger with the knife.
- #022
After reading the script, Sigourney Weaver had several notes for James Cameron, mostly about how she felt Ripley should react to situations, which she was happy to adjust. Cameron praised her for never objecting to the direction he wanted to take the story, even on points they could not agree on. One of these was the amount of armed violence; Weaver had initially focused on the script's dialogue rather than the stage directions, so when she arrived on set she told Cameron that, as an advocate of gun control, she was uncomfortable with all the shooting. Cameron felt this was perfect for Ripley, who is equally reluctant to use weapons unless forced to, and told Weaver to bring that attitude into her performance as well. He also took her to a firing range to try and fire an automatic weapon, which she had to admit was pretty cool.
- #023
- #024
- #025
- #026
(At about 17 minutes) By the time it came to build the hypersleep chamber set on the Sulaco, the film's production design budget was nearly exhausted. Each chamber cost over $4,300 to build, meaning they could only afford to produce four capsules. Production designer Peter Lamont faced the difficult task of telling director James Cameron that they would have to skip the entire scene, but he devised a trick: clever placement of mirrors and camera angles made it look as though there were 12 chambers instead of four, allowing the scene to be filmed.
- #027
In an interview with Moviefone, Sigourney Weaver said that whenever one of the actors came to "die", she would give them a bouquet of flowers before filming began. When it came time for Paul Reiser to be killed off, she gave him a handful of dead flowers. Carrie Henn received an engraved picture from Weaver after production was completed.
- #028
- #029
Aliens was never screened for test audiences because the editing and music were not finished until the week before its theatrical release. A studio screening attended only by 20th Century Fox executives drew great interest. Marketing experts later said that Aliens probably helped save Fox, which at the time was desperately in need of a hit.
- #030
- #031
- #032
On set there was a great deal of hostility between the largely British crew and both James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, neither of whom had experience working under the specific rules of British studios. One of their few allies was production designer Peter Lamont, but in the eyes of the rest Cameron was still a relatively untested director, since few had seen The Terminator (1984) (which had been a flop at the UK box office) and he was not deemed worthy of directing the sequel to Sir Ridley Scott's much-loved Alien (1979). They allegedly mocked Hurd by suggesting she could only be a producer because she was married to Cameron, and they did not take her seriously (Hurd said she had already turned down several potential crew members who stated they would not take orders from a woman). The crew saw Cameron and Hurd as overly demanding and arrogant, and in turn Cameron and Hurd saw the crew as lazy (partly because of constant tea breaks and an unwillingness to work overtime), insolent and arrogant. After the long and difficult shoot, Cameron addressed the crew and said the one thing that made it all worth enduring was: "Knowing that one day I'll leave Pinewood and never come back, and you poor bastards will still be here." Cameron indeed never returned to Pinewood studios, but he later hired Lamont as production designer on True Lies (1994) and even brought him out of retirement to work on Titanic (1997). Whatever Cameron's personal feelings, Pinewood remained the studio facility of choice for many American directors. Ironically, Ridley Scott had had a similar experience while shooting Blade Runner (1982) in the US, where he felt constrained by restrictive American union rules and the rigidity of his crew, who in turn thought Scott was cold, distant and overly perfectionist.
- #033
Sigourney Weaver was initially very hesitant about reprising the role of Ripley (though this is generally a bargaining tactic actors use to raise their salary demands). She had turned down numerous sequel offers from Fox Studios because she feared her character would be badly written and that a below-average sequel could damage the legacy of Alien (1979). However, she was so impressed by the high quality of James Cameron's script, especially its strong focus on Ripley, the mother-daughter bond between her character and Newt, and Cameron's incredible sensitivity in writing her character, that she eventually agreed to make the film. She was of course disappointed when Cameron had to shorten the film and cut the scene in which Burke brings Ripley the bad news about her daughter's death; Weaver felt it would have completed the circle of the mother-daughter bond with Newt and said that the scene's omission prevented her from fully enjoying the film at the premiere. That scene was later restored in the Special Edition.
- #034
- #035
- #036
In the original script, while searching for Newt, Ripley encounters a cornered Burke (Paul Reiser) in the power plant. He claims he can feel the chestburster inside him and asks for help. Ripley hands him a live grenade and goes on her way. This scene was shot by the production's second unit and was meant to come right after Ripley uses her second flare and just before she notices the motion tracker reading zero. When Ripley frees Newt and they are startled by a sudden explosion as they leave, it was originally meant to be Burke's grenade going off. However, James Cameron cut the scene from the theatrical version because he did not like it visually and felt Burke could not be impregnated that quickly after his abduction; he added a few shots of a sudden reactor explosion to mask Burke blowing himself up. This scene was not among the restored scenes in the Special Edition either, so for decades the only evidence it existed was a single still image from a magazine. It was finally made available in full among the film's Blu-ray bonus content.
- #037
Lawrence Gordon, the 20th Century Fox president who hired James Cameron to write the script, did the unthinkable when Cameron left the production to direct The Terminator (1984): Fox agreed to wait until Cameron was available again and to let him finish the script, with an option to direct if The Terminator performed well and he showed talent as a director. Because of other work, Cameron had completed only 90 pages at that stage, but Gordon liked what he had written so far and said: "There are decisions in this business where you suffer and lose sleep, but this was so obvious. It was done without a second thought. Everything about him read 'the right man.'".
- #038
The armored personnel carrier (APC) is a modified aircraft tug of the kind British Airways used at Heathrow to pull planes. The only problem was that the truck they got weighed 75 tons. By removing much of the lead used in its construction, they managed to take off about 35 tons. It was still so heavy that the construction crew had to reinforce the floor several times over to bear the vehicle's weight.
- #039
- #040
Production Story (354)
- #041
- #042
According to Bill Paxton, he was lined up to be in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985) when he auditioned for and got the role of Hudson. He mentions it was the part of Zed, which he declined because he would then be required to also appear in any future sequels. The role of Zed ultimately went to Bobcat Goldthwait.
- #043
Sigourney Weaver reflected on the animosity between James Cameron and the crew, "What I remember is that they really loved Ridley, and they wanted Ridley to be directing this second film. They didn't know who Jim Cameron was. I didn't really know who he was. I just thought he wrote a great script. So they did have an attitude, and it did take a while [for them to get along], actually... I remember because I loved Jim right away, it was very easy for me to go around and go, 'Listen, I love Ridley too, but this guy wrote this and this film Terminator, and he knows what he's doing. He's a natural.'"
- #044
- #045
Like Jerry Goldsmith before him on Alien (1979), composer James Horner wasn't particularly happy with the treatment of his score for the film despite receiving his first Oscar nomination. He delivered a finished score which didn't sit well with the edited film. Because Horner was unavailable as he was working on another film at the time, James Cameron had to heavily chop up the score to fit his edit, and use music from Goldsmith's Alien score in some places. A Deluxe Edition soundtrack of Horner's original score has since been released by Varèse Sarabande.
- #046
- #047
- #048
The members of the cast remember how hectic the production and how hands-on James Cameron was. Lance Henriksen remembers a threat at one point to have production move to shoot somewhere else, since the union they were working with wasn't used to working in Cameron's fast-paced style. Bill Paxton remembers Cameron moving lights and punching holes in walls when they were required, not exactly an okay thing to do yourself when working on a unionized set.
- #049
According to director James Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd, most British crew members, with the exception of some of the art department people and production designer Peter Lamont, approached the job as "factory work" with little love for the art of filmmaking, calling them "timecard punchers" who got aggravated with 12 or 14-hour days. They also mentioned frequent disagreements with Derek Cracknell, the film's assistant director (well respected among the crew as he had been AD for Stanley Kubrick and on several James Bond films), who continuously questioned Cameron's decisions, reversed his orders and was openly antagonistic towards him. He and the crew would frequently call Cameron "Guv'nor", "Grizzly Adams" (due to his beard) or "the Yank" (Cameron is Canadian), and were overtly sexist to Hurd. However, some insiders claim that most of these clashes were due to Cameron and Hurd's inexperience, both as filmmakers and with English culture: the term "Grizzly Adams" and sexist innuendos could have been meant as lighthearted jokes that Cameron and Hurd took exception to, and the term "Guv'nor" or "Guv" (short for "Governor") means "Boss", and is a sign of respect in British-English (unless used ironically). Also, Cracknell's job as AD was to assist the director and offer logistical advice and options when filming, and he felt infinitely more experienced than Cameron at that point, who had only done The Terminator (1984) (which was essentially a low-budget indie film made for a small studio). Additionally, the crew claimed that their working hours were not honored: Pinewood Studios provided its own crew at the time, and British crews have standard union contracts which entitle them to breaks during the day and finishing at a set time (unless overtime had been agreed in advance), but Cameron did not respect these rights. Ultimately, the on-set feuds between Cameron, Hurd, Cracknell and director of photography Dick Bush caused the production to fall behind schedule, prompting Hurd to fire Cracknell and Bush. This briefly instigated an unexpected mass strike from the rest of the crew, and with no other crew quickly available, there were serious doubt as to whether the film would make it to completion. Cameron briefly considered moving production out of England, but this would have meant the end of his career as 20th Century Fox had already spent millions on the studio space and sets. Fortunately, the mutiny was quickly resolved when Sigourney Weaver, who had an English mother and was well respected by both groups, negotiated a truce. A meeting was set up where Cameron apologized for being so harsh, but also convinced the crew of the importance of his work, and promised to respect their rights to breaks and set working hours. This cleared the air and allowed the crew to work together, enough at least to finish the movie.
- #050
According to the cast, every actress auditioning for a part of a Marine was given lines of the tough female Pvt. Vasquez character to perform, while all the actors got lines of Pvt. Hudson, as these two characters had the most and best dialogue. Jenette Goldstein and Cynthia Dale Scott stated that while they both read for the part of Vasquez, they were considered for other roles (probably Cpl. Ferro), as body builder Rachel McLish had already been cast as Vasquez, and was going through acting lessons. McLish then dropped out, apparently because she had demanded that Vasquez would never swear, as this was against McLish' religion. Director James Cameron then remembered being impressed with Goldstein, and convinced the studio to give her the Vasquez role, while writing the new part of Dietrich especially for Scott.
- #051
James Cameron had several designers come up with ideas for the drop ship that took the Marines from the Sulaco to the planet. Design after design, he finally gave up on them to come up with one he liked, and constructed his own drop ship out of a model of an Apache helicopter and other spare model pieces. The resulting design has the hallmarks of a military helicopter used to deploy troops, to maintain the parallels with the Vietnam war.
- #052
The Sulaco was described as "metal spires followed by a mountain of steel... ugly, battered, functional" in the screenplay. Syd Mead initially designed it as a large, circular ship, but James Cameron preferred something elongated. He handed in a sketch that made it look like a large pulse rifle as used by the marines in the film, which Mead used as the basis for the re-design. Only one side of the model was actually finished to save money.
- #053
Some of the sound effects for this film were created with help from the Fairlight, an early Australian-made digital sampler. The then state-of-the art Fairlight machine sampled at 8 bit resolution. Musicians such as Jan Hammer, Kate Bush, and Prince have used it extensively throughout their careers.
- #054
When asked about the possibility of a sequel to Alien (1979), director Sir Ridley Scott stated that he saw a lot of potential in exploring the origins of the Alien, which he saw as "may be one of the last descendants of some long-lost self-destructed group of beings". Scott added that "in many respects [this sequel will] be more interesting [than the first movie], from a pure science-fiction stand point." In the end, Scott was never approached to do a sequel, after James Cameron was asked to write and direct one on the strength of his movie The Terminator (1984) (although Scott was later allowed to explore the Alien's origins in the prequel Prometheus (2012) and its successors). At the time, Scott said that "it hurt my feelings, really, because I thought we did quite a good job on the first one". However, while doing another film on an adjacent studio, he had a brief but polite chat with Cameron, showing no hard feelings whatsoever. Although the sequel did go into another direction than Scott had hoped, he was impressed by the result: "It's always a tough job to follow a successful film with a sequel to it, so what I think James Cameron did was an excellent action picture. It really was amazing what he accomplished. [...] I would never, ever critique or criticize [Aliens] because I think it was very successful and what he did was really good."
- #055
The studio was puzzled by James Cameron's condition that Gale Anne Hurd be producer on the film, initially thinking that he only wanted her around because they were romantically involved. However, Cameron also had a long creative partnership with Hurd, and she had actually been instrumental in getting his The Terminator (1984) made. They married during pre-production, and their marriage lasted 4 years; by the time they started work on their next project, The Abyss (1989), they were separated.
- #056
James Horner's schedule only allowed for him to work on the film for 7 weeks. He arrived in London to perform his duties, only to find that they were still shooting, much less editing. He sat around for 3 weeks before being able to get started, and when he did, there were only 2 weeks before the scheduled scoring session (which couldn't be canceled without forfeiting the entire fee). He wrote his final piece of music overnight, and it was recorded on the last day of the scoring session. Additional music had to be added after Horner left to score another film.
- #057
James Cameron recalled that his experience with producers David Giler and Walter Hill was rocky at times. They approached him to write the movie based on a fairly non-descript premise: "They didn't give me anything specific, just this idea of [Ripley] getting together with some military types and having them all go back to the planet". There were some notes and story ideas, but their outline simply ended with 'and then some other bullshit happens.' Cameron pretty much came up with the rest himself, based on which he was tasked with writing a full screenplay. However, due to also writing The Terminator (1984) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) at the same time, he had only finished a 90-page script at the deadline: "Giler lost it. He actually said something I never thought I'd hear anyone say in Hollywood - 'You'll never work in this town again!'" However, Hill said that they should submit it anyway. Cameron was later dismayed to learn that Giler and Hill had credited themselves as the first writers on his draft, and him third: "[they] got a check for my treatment, and I got nothing. I was pretty pissed off about that one". However, this is not the first time that Hill and Giler attempted to take a screenplay credit from someone else: Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the original screenplay for Alien (1979), had a similar problem with them when they thoroughly rewrote his script, and then attempted to claim screenplay credit (and therefore royalties) for themselves; they planned to give O'Bannon and his writing partner Ronald Shusett only a story credit for their original idea. The case went to arbitration with the Writer's Guild of America, who ruled in O'Bannon's favor.
- #058
- #059
James Cameron had especially centered his story and screenplay around the character of Ellen Ripley from Alien (1979), so he was dismayed to learn that not only had Sigourney Weaver never signed on for a sequel, she had not even been contacted yet to reprise her role. When Cameron finally contacted her himself and gave her the script, Weaver showed interest, but the studio objected against her increased salary demands (as she had become a bankable star in the meanwhile). The difficulties surrounding her contract negotiations were such that Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd - recently married - announced that if the deal was not done by the time they got back from their honeymoon, they were out. When they returned, no progress had been made and shooting was due to start in several months, so Cameron, who had no intention to make the film without Weaver but was also wary of the deadline scenario he had created, devised a scheme: he telephoned Arnold Schwarzenegger's agent for an informal chat and informed him that, thanks to his newfound standing in Hollywood following The Terminator (1984), he was planning on making this film entirely his own by writing Ripley out; as Cameron anticipated, Schwarzenegger's agent immediately relayed the information to his colleague representing Weaver at ICM, who in turn contacted 20th Century-Fox Head of Production Lawrence Gordon; both men, determined that under no circumstances whatsoever would Ripley be written out, wasted no time in sealing Weaver's deal. Cameron later expressed his relief that the bluff worked out, because if it hadn't, the film would most likely have been canceled altogether.
- #060
James Remar was dismissed after he was busted for possession of drugs. It also meant that he fell out with producer Walter Hill, with whom he had worked on The Warriors (1979), The Long Riders (1980) and 48 Hrs. (1982). Hill was a producer on 'Aliens' and had got Remar the audition. It would be another 9 years before the two worked together again in Wild Bill (1995).
- #061
- #062
- #063
- #064
For the role of Vasquez, the producers were looking for a muscular woman. They were seriously considering to cast a female bodybuilder for the part, because they didn't believe that they could find a muscular actress. According to Jenette Goldstein, when the producers saw her, they were kinda shocked to see that there was a trained actress with the kind of athletic physique they were looking for.
- #065
James Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd both almost quit the film twice during development. Hurd asked for a budget of $15.5 million, but 20th Century Fox was unwilling to approve anything above $12 million, which led to Cameron and Hurd's first departure. However, Fox president Lawrence Gordon was a strong advocate for Cameron's vision for the film, and convinced chairman Barry Diller to approve Hurd's proposal. Diller said, "Unquestionably, this was Larry's picture." Cameron and Hurd both threatened to quit again after learning that Fox was ambivalent about rehiring Sigourney Weaver to play Ellen Ripley. The studio feared that her salary demands would be too high, since she had became a bankable star since Alien (1979), and because she would ask for an even higher payday if she knew that Cameron regarded her as irreplaceable. Fox ultimately relented, and Weaver was cast.
- #066
- #067
James Cameron brought several renderings of the Queen Alien to his preliminary design meetings at Stan Winston Studio, featuring a massive 4-armed insectoid body and "an elegant" crown-like head with a retractable face, "packed" with dagger-sized, translucent teeth. From there, he and Winston traded sketches before arriving at a final design, which was then sculpted at 1/4 scale by a team of SWS artists. Stan Winston selected one of his key artists, Shane Mahan to tackle the head. Once Cameron signed off on the maquette, it was time to realize the full-size version. Again, Mahan took the lead on the head, sculpting it in WED clay over a period of several weeks in Winston's Aliens FX workshop which had recently been established at Pinewood Studios, outside of London. Under the art direction of Cameron and Winston, Mahan translated the miniature head and face into full-scale, adding and defining design elements along the way.
- #068
- #069
The initial cinematographer was Dick Bush. However, director James Cameron fired him a month into production because he wasn't satisfied with Bush' lighting, and the two men reportedly hated working with each other. Cameron then tried to hire Derek Vanlint, the director of photography on Sir Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). Vanlint wasn't interested, but recommended Adrian Biddle for the job, who had been 1st AC (focus puller) on Alien but had never shot a feature as DP before. Biddle would later work with Scott on Thelma & Louise (1991) and 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992).
- #070
Although the anatomy of the Queen would inevitably conjure the image of a dinosaur -- a bipedal creature with a tail -- Cameron wanted the design to distance itself from those, instead taking inspiration from arthropods: "I feel a sense of authorship when it comes to the Queen. Somebody once described it as an anorexic dinosaur, which I suppose is inevitable even though that's not what I had in mind. In fact, I wanted specifically not to suggest a dinosaur concept -- at least overtly -- because that would have been a little too commonplace and boring. For me, the Queen is really a blend of what Giger does with what I wanted to do, which was to create something that was big and powerful and terrifying and fast and very female -- hideous and beautiful at the same time, like a black widow spider." Cameron also conceived the basic structure of a full-size animatronic Alien Queen, a marvel of unprecedented complexity. Suspended from a cable rig, the creature would contain two puppeteers that would control one large and one small arm each -- in order to achieve organic fluidity to their movements. The rest of the Monster -- which included the head, legs, and tail -- would instead be puppeteered with a combination of hydraulic mechanisms, wires and rods. Although Winston was intrigued by Cameron's concept of the Queen, he was initially skeptical about the intended structure of the puppet, for primarily practical reasons. "Jim had seen what we could do with puppets on The Terminator," he said, "and so it made perfect sense that he thought of puppeteering techniques when he needed a way to realize the Alien Queen. But, even so, it was a huge leap of faith to believe we could build a 14-foot tall, acting puppet." Winston tried to elaborate his own renderings of the Alien Queen. He explained: "there were a few little things about the design that I thought could be improved, so I worked up a few sketches of my own and showed them to Jim. Actually they were pretty much like his, although on one of them I had deleted the extra set of arms and reconfigured it so that only a single stuntman would be needed inside." Cameron rejected the ideas, adamant to adhere to his vision. Though the director did not intend to use Winston's designs, some of their traits were implemented in the final design -- which, otherwise, essentially adhered to Cameron's concept. "One thing Jim did like," Winston continues, "was an idea from my redesign of the leg that gave it a double joint and made it look less human. In the end, Jim took into consideration some of what I'd said and the things I'd drawn and he went off and drew another Queen which was similar to his first but much more refined. In fact, when he came back, it was obvious that that was the Alien Queen. There was no doubt about it. We then sat down together and worked out a scale drawing -- literally blueprinting her out in profile and front view, with her exact shape and exactly how she would have to be done to get two people inside." The final Queen design also included more overt influence from Giger's paintings -- such as Alien Monster IV, which provided inspiration for both the Queen's neck and hands. The Queen's head also included a front portion able to move independently from the crown and 'retract' inside it when at rest. When the Queen is revealed, she is still attached to her Egg-laying sac, inspired by queen termites.
- #071
- #072
Bill Paxton ran into friend and colleague James Cameron shortly after the latter had been given the director's job on the movie. Paxton jokingly told Cameron, "I hope you write me a good part in it", and was subsequently called to audition. He got a fake plasma rifle to use, but he got too enthusiastic, and later thought that his performance had been too over the top. Luckily, Cameron loved the energy that Paxton had displayed, and offered him the part of Private Hudson, the movie's comic relief character. Paxton happily accepted, turning down the offer to play Zed in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985).
- #073
There was talk of bringing Swiss artist H.R. Giger, the designer of the original Alien creature, back for the second movie to do more design work, but James Cameron decided against it, as Giger was still working on Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986), and Cameron had already hired Ron Cobb and Syd Mead for the futuristic buildings and crafts. Furthermore, there was only one major creature design to be done, that of the Alien Queen, of which Cameron had already made some drawings. Cameron later admitted that he had considered asking Giger, but feared that the eccentric artist would be overwhelming and difficult to work with. When Cameron later heard that Giger had expressed some irritation about not being asked back, he wrote him a letter of apology. Despite his disappointment about not being invited to return, Giger still called the film's designs and execution "beautifully done", and was complimentary of the Queen's look, commenting: "I like the fight at the end very much. The Alien Queen is very complicated, like the way I would have done. I like how she moves, and the scenes with Ripley are very good."
- #074
- #075
Producers David Giler and Walter Hill were keen to work with James Cameron after liking his script for The Terminator (1984), which was temporarily stalled in pre-production until Arnold Schwarzenegger completed Conan the Destroyer (1984). Cameron pitched several ideas, none of which they were that receptive to (one was a sci-fi update of a "sword-and-sandals movie", but they only wanted to do a proper historical action movie on an alien planet). As Cameron was leaving, however, they did mention plans of doing a sequel to Alien (1979); immediately, Cameron's interest was piqued, since Alien was one of his favorite recent movies. Based on a premise by Giler and Hill that Ripley would team up with soldiers and return to the planet, Cameron added many elements from a story he had written called "Mother", about a genetically-engineered creature that is trying to protect its offspring; terraforming, an all-powerful company and the term 'xenomorph' were also part of this story. Giler and Hill loved the 40-50 page story treatment for 'Alien II' that he handed in less than a week later, and commissioned him to write a full screenplay. Cameron was a bit hesitant at first, because he had also landed screenwriting duties for Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) that day, but Giler and Hill told him: "Don't be stupid. Take both jobs." Cameron then worked on three scripts simultaneously, as he was also writing additional drafts of his Terminator screenplay, each on a different desk to set the projects apart in his mind.
- #076
By the late 1980s, the process of 24 frames per second video had been widely adopted, in part as a technical advance on the techniques used in "Aliens", amongst other productions, including 24fps filming of the UK's 25/50 fps PAL tv and video monitors - removing generally unavoidable screen flicker from the video refreshing rate clashes causing odd screen images when shot using different film speed frame rates. Ultimately this led to many productions being shot on video and given a fake 24fps film appearance, and ultimately led to motion pictures being shot in HD and Ultra HD, in effect as 24fps video.
- #077
Stephen Lang auditioned for the roles of Carter Burke and Corporal Dwayne Hicks. Hicks was eventually played by Michael Biehn. Lang would later play the villain Miles Quaritch in Avatar (2009), also directed by James Cameron. The part of Quaritch was originally intended for Biehn, but since Sigourney Weaver had already been cast, they wanted to prevent Avatar from looking like an "Aliens reunion".
- #078
Sigourney Weaver was shooting One Woman or Two (1985) when she received the script for this film. She recalled, "A script was sent to me: 'Aliens' by James Cameron. [It] was magnificent. The greatest script I had ever read. I was just blown away by the humor and the humanity and the action."
- #079
Producing the movie in Hollywood might have cost $35 million, an amount 20th Century Fox was unwilling to spend. Having the film produced in England was not for sentimental reasons (Alien (1979) was filmed there) but mostly a budgetary decision, as it qualified production for financial breaks and the exchange rate was preferable at the time, which cut the costs by $20 million.
- #080
This was the second of two movie franchises where James Horner scored the sequel after Jerry Goldsmith scored the first film in the franchise. Goldsmith scored Alien (1979), while Horner scored this film. The other was the Star Trek franchise where Goldsmith scored Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), while Horner scored the sequel, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Both the Alien and Star Trek movie franchises began in 1979.
- #081
Ricco Ross (Private Frost) and William Hope (Lieutenant Gorman) revealed that they were both offered roles in Aliens and Full Metal Jacket (1987), which would both be shot in London around the same time. Hope was eventually persuaded to do Aliens when he learned that it was from the makers of The Terminator (1984). Ross' 8-week shooting schedule for FMJ would overlap with his first week on Aliens, but because he really wanted to work with Stanley Kubrick, he asked James Cameron's permission to do both movies. Cameron agreed, on the condition that Ross be available in the second week of shooting Aliens. However, Kubrick couldn't guarantee Ross that he would be done by that time (even saying that his 8 weeks could easily turn into 8 months), so Ross chose to do only Aliens. By the time that Aliens was released in theaters, Kubrick was still shooting FMJ.
- #082
James Cameron noted he doesn't particularly like the anamorphic widescreen format and mentions problems he had working on visual effects on Escape from New York (1981) as the catalyst for this dislike. His only regret on the film is that he didn't shoot it in widescreen to be more consistent with Sir Ridley Scott's look in Alien (1979). He mentions he still thinks Scott's film looks better. Cameron also thinks the Facehuggers in the first film look better than the ones found in this film.
- #083
The editing on this film was done way before digital editing was introduced. James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd remember the difficulties Ray Lovejoy ran into as editor on the film, Cameron noting that, with cut-and-splice editing like this, it was easier to cut out minutes of footage rather than take out seconds here and there.
- #084
- #085
Although Alien (1979) had been an unexpected box office success, 20th Century Fox Studios initially had surprisingly little interest in a sequel, as conventional wisdom at the time stated that "sequels cost twice as much, but make only half as much". Original producers David Giler and Walter Hill took the early initiative, with the support of Fox production head Alan Ladd Jr. who had greenlit the original. However, Ladd then left the company to form his own (The Ladd Company), and his successor Norman Levy had no faith in the plan. The producers also got embroiled in a lawsuit with Fox over the profits of Alien, so it wasn't until this lawsuit was settled in 1983 and a management change at Fox in 1984 that the studio started to become more receptive to their ideas. Development executive Larry Wilson suggested James Cameron as a screenwriter, who wrote a first draft of the screenplay. Some studio executives still felt that this draft was only "wall-to-wall horror and it needed more character development", but recently appointed studio head Lawrence Gordon loved it, immediately greenlit the movie and gave Cameron the time to develop the full script while he was off to direct The Terminator (1984).
- #086
- #087
- #088
James Cameron faced a big problem trying to win the confidence and respect of the British crew, many of whom had worked on Alien (1979). However, his previous movie The Terminator (1984), though a hit in the US, had been a box office flop in the UK following its January 1985 release. In order to try and convince the crew that he had the talent and skills for the job, Cameron arranged screenings of The Terminator for the crew on the set to demonstrate his abilities, but most of them ignored the invite and didn't bother to turn up.
- #089
- #090
- #091
- #092
In 2015, it was rumored that Sigourney Weaver would return as Ripley for the first time in 20 years since Alien: Resurrection (1997). The fifth film would ignore Alien³ (1992) and Resurrection as if they never happened (such as a dream in Ripley's mind) or would be set in a alternate timeline. Neill Blomkamp was attached as director, with Sir Ridley Scott (director of Alien (1979)) producing. However, in 2017, Blomkamp stated that the project was unofficially dead, because the studio had preferred to complete Scott's Alien prequel trilogy (which started with Prometheus (2012)). Scott later added that Blomkamp's project had never been more than some ideas and artwork, without a completed script.
- #093
This film was never shown to test audiences because editing and scoring was not completed until the week before its theatrical release. Only a studio screening was performed for 20th Century Fox executives, which was enthusiastically received. Marketing experts later said that Aliens probably helped save Fox, which was in desperate need of a hit at the time.
- #094
- #095
- #096
- #097
James Cameron based his screenplay on an unrelated story that he had written around 1981, titled 'E.T. (extraterrestrial), until he found out that Steven Spielberg was making a movie called E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). He first re-titled it 'Protein' before settling on 'Mother'. It was about a female human-creature hybrid that had been genetically engineered to be able to survive the toxic atmosphere of the planet Venus. The story also contained a conglomerate company that funds space mining and terraforming, and the term 'xenomorph' originated from this treatment. The end saw a human protagonist not unlike Ripley battling the creature in a 'power loader', as the hybrid tried to protect its offspring. The Colonial Marines were added at the request of producers David Giler and Walter Hill. Cameron was also writing Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) at the time, and his research into Vietnam veterans and post-traumatic stress disorders proved very useful when writing Ripley's story arc. The idea of a planetary atmosphere that is toxic to humans was later reused in Cameron's Avatar (2009).
- #098
James Cameron had sent his The Terminator (1984) screenplay out to producers in the hope of landing more writing assignments. He was hired to write Aliens on the recommendation of Walter Hill who loved The Terminator, and was offered the director's chair after the studio was impressed by his screenplay.
- #099
Like Dan O'Bannon who had changed the name of his screenplay for the previous film from 'Star Beast' to Alien (1979) because he noted how often the word 'alien' was used in it, James Cameron similarly changed his screenplay from 'Alien II' to 'Aliens' after realizing how often that word appeared in it. He apparently loved it so much that every time someone on set would dare to refer to the film as 'Alien II', he would fiercely correct them.
- #100
Having hired James Cameron to write the screenplay, 20th Century Fox president Lawrence Gordon did the unthinkable when Cameron left the production to direct The Terminator (1984): Fox agreed to wait for Cameron to become available again and finish the screenplay, with an option to direct if The Terminator turned out well and he showed talent as a director. Due to other engagements, Cameron had only completed about 90 pages at that stage, but Gordon had loved what he had written so far, saying that "in this business there are those decisions you agonize and lose sleep over, but this was so obvious. It was a no-brainer. Everything about him spelled 'right guy'."
- #101
James Cameron explained that the original version ran approximately two hours and 35 or 40 minutes. As he and his team looked for ways to shorten it, Gale Anne Hurd came up with a radical suggestion: remove Reel 2 entirely. Cameron's initial reaction was that this suggestion was the worst idea he had ever heard. That's understandable considering what Reel 2 contained: it introduced Newt and her family, established the colony, took the audience back to the alien derelict, and built toward the family's encounter with a facehugger. In other words, Reel 2 contains a substantial amount of story and world-building. But Cameron eventually agreed to try Hurd's suggestion. He said he sat down at the editing system, removed the reel and watched the movie. His conclusion: "That's the movie." Cameron described the experience as an example of the value of an outside perspective. A director can become so immersed in a movie that it becomes difficult to judge what the audience actually needs to see. Hurd, as the producer, was able to look at the film with enough distance to recognize that the story might be stronger without an entire section of it. Cameron said that a talented studio executive who understands and cares about story can provide that same kind of objectivity. The director doesn't necessarily have to follow every suggestion, Cameron explained, but he should listen, process the idea and recognize when it resonates with something he already knows to be true about the movie. For Cameron, the Reel 2 experiment apparently became one of those moments. He explained that Aliens was actually shot on 35mm film rather than 70mm, using the best high-speed, low-light negative available to the production at the time. Cameron nevertheless insisted on a 70mm release and personally handled the film's color timing. He recalled experimenting with the presentation in ways that pushed the laboratory and negative-cutting process to its limits, including frame-by-frame lighting changes during flamethrower bursts and white frames inserted when characters fired their machine guns.
- #102
- #103
Much like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) did a decade earlier, Aliens had a "Special Edition" with added footage. This version was made available on home media. This version became so popular that many fans (and director James Cameron) now consider it the definitive cut of the film.
- #104
After the sudden success of The Terminator (1984), James Cameron was in high demand, but he really wanted to do this sequel to Alien (1979), one of his favorite films. A risky project, given that movie's popularity, but Cameron later said that he was so happy that he never considered it could be career suicide. When warned by producer Julia Phillips of Taxi Driver (1976) fame that anything good in the movie would inevitably be attributed to Sir Ridley Scott's vision, and all the bad to his, he simply replied "Yeah, but it will be cool".
- #105
Michael Biehn, who had enjoyed working with director James Cameron on The Terminator (1984), was aware of Cameron's Aliens, and had actually been campaigning to play Corporal Hicks, but learned that Cameron had already cast James Remar in the role because he wanted to work with different people so early in his career. Biehn was slightly disappointed, but didn't worry about it and focused on other work, until he got the call on a Friday night from producer Gale Anne Hurd, asking him to take over from Remar who had been arrested for drug possession on Friday; Biehn was in London to start filming on the following Monday. Cameron and Hurd later said that Biehn brought a humanity to Hicks that they felt was lacking from Remar's performance. Coincidentally, a similar situation had happened to John Hurt when he was cast as Kane in Alien (1979): Hurt was considered for the role but was unavailable, so Jon Finch was cast. When Finch dropped out due to illness, Hurt (whose schedule had cleared up) was offered the role over the weekend, and started filming the next Monday.
- #106
Inspired by the alien queen concept for Aliens, Stan Winston was eager to explore other ways in which putting two performers in a suit could disguise the human anatomy underlying a creature design. "I wanted to create an alien invader that didn't look like a guy in a suit," said Stan Winston. "So I came up with this idea of putting a little person on the back of a big guy who would stand and walk backward."
- #107
In an interview, composer James Horner felt that James Cameron had given him so little time to write a musical score for the film, he was forced to cannibalize previous scores he had done, such as elements from his Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) scores, as well as adapt a rendition of "Gayane Ballet Suite" for the main and end titles. Horner stated that the tensions with Cameron were so high during post-production that he assumed they would never work together again. However, Cameron loved the score from Braveheart (1995) so much, the two mutually agreed that Horner would write the score for Titanic (1997), because it was a story they both wanted to do. They proceeded to each win Oscars for Titanic and collaborated again twelve years later for Avatar (2009), their final work together before Horner's death in 2015.
- #108
When he went off to write the screenplay, James Cameron was told Sigourney Weaver was totally committed to returning as Ripley. Cameron wrote the screenplay accordingly, not knowing that no such deal had been struck with the actress. "So that's why she got her first, big payday of her acting career," Cameron jokes. He also notes she may be the first actress to get $1m for a role in movie history, but Elizabeth Taylor might have something to say about that since she was reportedly paid $1m (+ a share of the box office gross) for her role in Cleopatra (1963).
- #109
James Cameron originally wanted to shoot the film in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, but hates anamorphic lenses after the visual effects problems he experienced with it while working on Escape from New York (1981). Around this time, Super 35 film stock was becoming an option, but a lab tech talked him out of it by warning him of how grainy the process was, leading Cameron to shoot it flat on normal 35 mm film in the 1.85 ratio. Ironically, the film then became infamous among cinematographers for having one of the grainiest 70mm transfers to public knowledge, and in the DVD commentary, Cameron wishes he shot the movie with the wider frame. Unsurprisingly, all of Cameron's movies after this were shot in the Super 35 format and are often regarded as the gold standard for the process to the point he published an article in the official magazine for the American Society of Cinematographers on how he gets such clean extractions. Cameron ultimately fixed his issues with the film when releasing it on Ultra HD format, where AI-assisted technology was used on the new 4K remaster to color-correct the original picture, and significantly reduce the amount of grain from it. This decision has led to some controversy: some praised the new picture as amazingly clean and sharp while retaining the fine details, whereas others claim that without the original grain, the movie looks artificial and loses its authenticity.
- #110
The design of the adult alien creature from Alien (1979) was mostly kept intact, with very little changes. The most recognizable difference is the ridges on the head, which were actually present in the original design, but covered with a layer of gel to create a smooth head. Other differences include a slightly different pattern of ridges and bones on the neck; a slightly longer and slimmer torso, with two additional ribs; longer and slimmer arms and legs with more extensive bone patterns; three (longer) fingers on each hand instead of five, and slightly redesigned feet. Additionally, the chestburster received two small arms to help pull itself out of its victim.
- #111
- #112
When James Cameron re-teamed with The Terminator (1984) collaborator, Stan Winston, to take on the creature effects for Aliens, their goal was to stay true to the biomechanical design aesthetic that had been established by H.R. Giger while still finding ways to push it further; the Chestburster would have arms; the Drones would have bonier skulls and there would be a brand new character to design, the Alien Queen. And her face "had to be perfect."
- #113
In 1992, Kenner approached 20th Century Fox about producing a toyline for this film, complete with a tie-in animated series. Fox created a pilot for the series, titled "Operation: Aliens," but scrapped it before it aired, possibly due to the disappointing reception of Alien³ (1992), and the difficulty of adapting the R-rated franchise into a children's program. However, the Kenner toys were still released. The pilot has never surfaced, but animation stills have leaked online.
- #114
Contains a major spoiler — show
Although the first script draft turned in on 30 May 1985 was very close to the final film, some scenes in this version were dropped or changed in the final film, though most remained in Alan Dean Foster's novelization. Those include: * Ripley's nightmare was quite bloody, with a quick glimpse of the chestburster. - Ripley and Burke waiting outside for the board's final decision, with Ripley convinced that they think she is crazy. * A longer scene with the Jordan family arguing; apparently, Newt and Timmy often play hide-and-seek inside the facility, which she calls 'Monster Maze'. * A unisex shower scene aboard the Sulaco after the Colonial Marines awake from hypersleep. (This scene was scrapped when the actresses refused to appear nude). * Ripley going into more detail about the facehuggers while briefing the Marines, calling the facehugger "a walking sex organ" to which Hudson replies, "Sounds like you, Hicks." * While nearing LV-426, Gorman re-confirms that there is no communication whatsoever from the colony. * There are thirty atmospheric processing units on the planet, as opposed to only one in the final film. * The initial sweep of the colony complex includes the colonists' quarters as well. * A dangling piece of ceiling sets off the motion tracker (hamsters in the movie). * Ripley cannot bring herself to leave the APC when Gorman, Burke and Bishop enter the colony, and returns to sit by herself inside the armored vehicle. However, she quickly decides being alone is even worse; she climbs out to follow the others, but the colony access lock shuts just in front of her, trapping her outside. Unable to open it or alert those already inside, she begins to panic when suddenly Wierzbowski appears behind her, scaring her. Apologizing, the Private reveals Hicks asked him to "keep an eye" on her, after which he opens the door to let them both inside. * Gorman telling Burke that the Company can write off its share of the colony; Burke replies it is insured anyway. * Ripley offers to be Newt's friend, but she declines, thinking Ripley will be dead soon anyway. * Newt explains she evaded the Aliens because she was so good at playing Monster Maze. * The resin from the Alien nest contains furniture, wires, as well as human bones. - During the Alien attack, Apone hands back the rifle magazines, ignoring Gorman's order. * During the escape, Gorman is stung unconscious by an Alien and almost pulled out of the APC; Hicks uses a gun turret to blast the Alien off the roof. * Burke stresses the importance of the Aliens more strongly, even offering Ripley a higher percentage if she cooperates. * Newt formally offering Ripley to be her daughter; Ripley likes the idea. * Bishop reveals that Gorman's catatonia is caused by a neuromuscular toxin from an Alien's stinger (replaced by the discovery that Alien blood gets neutralized through oxidation in the movie). * Bishop also predicts that the Queen has a large abdomen, and possesses basic intelligence. * After the first sentry gun attack, a motion sensor indicates the Aliens have breached the door, and have entered the complex. * Bishop encountering an Alien while crawling along the tunnel (this scene also appeared in the final script but neither in the theatrical release nor in the Special Edition). * Gorman asks Vasquez if she still wants to kill him; she replies it won't be necessary. * The second drop ship refueling itself before leaving the Sulaco under Bishop's remote control. * Hicks uses a welder to open a duct into a service way. From there, Newt falls into a chute. Ripley follows, but takes a different chute. * There are tiny albino versions of the warrior Aliens in the egg chamber, which pick up the eggs. * The first draft also included a scene with Ripley finding a cocooned Burke, which was shot but not included in any of the versions of the movie.
- #115
Contains a major spoiler — show
The infamous Weyland-Yutani Company almost didn't make it into the movie; in James Cameron's initial story treatment, the Company had been bought up by another conglomerate while Ripley was in hypersleep, and the character Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) wasn't present. The marines' search-and-rescue mission would therefore not have been a covert Company front to secretly obtain an Alien specimen. In the finished film and the sequel Alien³ (1992), the Company can be considered the real villain, with the titular Aliens being the direct antagonists.
- #116
Contains a major spoiler — show
James Cameron was not impressed how Ray Lovejoy was editing the film, and he seriously considered firing him and having the film re-edited from scratch by Mark Goldblatt, Cameron's editor on The Terminator (1984), and Peter Boita, who had already been brought on-board to edit the more dialogue-driven scenes. Lovejoy was used to the slow pace in which he had edited 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and he edited this film in the same manner. Upon hearing that his job was in danger, Lovejoy grabbed all the footage from the film's final battle, locked himself in an editing suite over the weekend, and presented the fully edited version of the battle to Cameron the following week. The effort paid off, because Cameron was sufficiently impressed to let Lovejoy stay on-board and supervise what was intended to be the final edit. Lovejoy later received an Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing.
- #117
Contains a major spoiler — show
There is some controversy about the existence of a scene where Bishop (Lance Henriksen) encounters an Alien while crawling through the narrow duct. The film's shooting script mentions a sequence where an Alien outside the duct senses Bishop's motions, and lashes out at him through a crack in the duct, but misses. The scene also appears in the film's novelization, and some people even claim to have seen it in TV broadcasts of the movie. However, it does not appear as a deleted scene among the bonus features on the film's BluRay version, nor is it mentioned in 'Aliens: The Illustrated Screenplay'. Henriksen himself didn't particularly remember shooting the sequence during a 2016 Q&A session, and it is generally assumed that the scene was not filmed at all due to being unnecessary, or lack of time.
- #118
Contains a major spoiler — show
England was chosen to produce the movie since that would give the production a significant financial break. However, it came with the obligation to audition and hire a number of local actors. For the speaking parts, they cast many American actors who were already living in England (such as Jenette Goldstein, Ricco Ross, Colette Hiller and Mark Rolston). This was particularly important for the actress playing Newt, who had to be a minor (Hiller also worked as a school teacher for the child actors during filming). The casting department went to look around US Air Force bases in England for American children, and auditions were held in schools, with Sigourney Weaver flown in to read with several children. At the time, Carrie Henn was living in England with her English mother and American father who was stationed there (listen to a hint of English accent when Newt says "Let's go," and "There is a short-cut across the roof" during the Alien attack at the end of the movie). Although she had no prior acting experience, she was perfect for the role (unlike most other children who had done mostly commercials, she did not have the tendency to smile after delivering their lines) and she also had an undeniable chemistry with Weaver. Henn also screentested with her real-life brother Christopher Henn, who was then cast as her movie brother Timmy (seen only in the extended version).
- #119
Contains a major spoiler — show
A scene cut from the theatrical version of the film, but included in the director's cut, reveals that Ripley had a daughter named Amanda who was 10 at the time of her disappearance and died from cancer at the age of 66, just two years before Ripley was found. Amanda Ripley is also the main character of the hit video game Alien: Isolation (2014), set 15 years after the events of Alien (1979) Amanda also works for the Wayland-Yutani corporation as an engineer in the Zeta Reticuli star system. She took this job since it brought her to the same region of space as the Nostromo's last reported location, hoping to find some clue about her mother's fate. Amanda is contacted by a representative of the company named Samuels after the Nostromo's flight recorder is found drifting in space by a salvage ship near Zeta Reticuli II and brought to a space station called Sevastopol. Samuels asks Amanda to accompany him to Sevastopol Station to help analyze the flight recorder logs and hopefully give Amanda the answers she has been searching for, however contact with the station is lost while they are in route to it. Unknown to them the salvage ship that found the Nostromo flight recorder also picked up the Engineer's warning signal on LV-426, just like the Nostromo they investigated the source of the signal and one of their crew was attacked and impregnated by a facehugger; unlike the Nostromo this ship's crew disabled the Engineer signal, explaining why the company doesn't detect it when colonizing LV-426. The salvage ship brought the infected crew member to the station for medical treatment which lead to a Xenomorph infestation of Sevastopol. So unknown to Ripley her daughter had faced and survived the same horrible ordeal that she had.
- #120
Contains a major spoiler — show
The name of the Company, "Weyland Yutani", was only shown once in Alien (1979), on a beer can (spelled as Weylan-Yutani). According to myth, the name was taken from the names of Alien director Sir Ridley Scott's former neighbors - he hated them, so he decided to "dedicate" the name of the "evil company" to them. In reality, the name was created by conceptual designer Ron Cobb (who created the Nostromo and the crew's uniforms) to imply a corner on the spacecraft market by an English-Japanese corporation. According to himself, he would have liked to use "Leyland-Toyota" but obviously could not so he changed one letter in Leyland and added the Japanese name of his (not Scott's) neighbor.
- #121
Contains a major spoiler — show
The "special edition" includes seventeen minutes of extra scenes: Ripley discussing her daughter with Burke; Ripley is demoted by the board; Newt's parents discovering the abandoned alien ship on LV-426; a tour through the Sulaco prior to the marines waking up; Hudson bragging about his weaponry; Ripley hesitates before she enters the colony complex on the planet; robot sentry guns repelling two Alien raids; the marines theorizing about an Alien leader as the source of the eggs; and Hicks and Ripley exchanging first names. Also included is a scene on LV-426 where a child rides a Bigwheel similar to one ridden in The Terminator (1984), also directed by James Cameron.
- #122
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the original script, while Ripley is looking for Newt, she encounters a cocooned Burke (Paul Reiser) in the power plant. He claims he can feel the chestburster inside him and asks for help. Ripley simply gives him a live grenade and moves on. This scene was filmed by the production's second unit and was supposed to come directly after Ripley uses her second flare, and just before she notices that the distance meter reads zero. When Ripley frees Newt and they are startled by a sudden explosion while leaving, that was originally meant to be Burke's grenade going off. However, James Cameron cut the scene from the theatrical cut because he didn't like it visually, and felt that Burke couldn't have been impregnated so fast after his abduction; he inserted a few shots of a sudden reactor explosion to mask Burke's blowing himself up. The scene was not among the restored scenes in the Special Edition either, so for decades, the only proof that it existed was a single still image from a magazine. It was finally made available in full on the film's Blu-Ray bonus content.
- #123
- #124
Contains a major spoiler — show
Hicks was originally played by James Remar, but Michael Biehn replaced him a few days after principal photography began. The often given reason for Remar being removed was due to "artistic differences" between him and director James Cameron, but in episode #128 of the 'Sidebar' podcast, Remar admitted that he was fired from the production because he was busted for possession of drugs, in a period of his life where he had developed a terrible drug problem. Producer Gale Anne Hurd later added that Remar was arrested for buying a 'speedbal' (heroine mixed with cocaine) from an undercover police officer, so there was no way that they could keep him in the movie; their legal efforts succeeded at least in getting him deported out of the UK, saving him from potentially serving 8 to 10 years in an English prison. Remar still appears in the finished film - he is seen for one shot when the marines enter the alien nest. Because he is seen from behind wearing the same armor as Michael Biehn, it's impossible to tell the difference between the two actors.
- #125
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 19 mins) In the shooting script, the scene where Vasquez asks Ferro about Ripley was supposed to take place during a co-ed shower scene aboard the Sulaco. This would have been the first depiction of marines of both sexes showering together as to show the gender equality within the marine corps. However, according to the actors, at the last moment, the decision to film it was left to the actresses involved, who weren't too enthusiastic about the idea, so the scene was re-written to occur in the locker room instead. A brief co-ed shower scene was featured within a police corps in Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987) instead, and later with marines in his Starship Troopers (1997).
- #126
- #127
- #128
Contains a major spoiler — show
The initial cut of the movie ran nearly 150 minutes, which was commercially risky. James Cameron was in doubt about how to shorten it, since shortening random scenes would only save minutes, and make the film feel rushed. Producer Gale Anne Hurd finally suggested cutting out a few scenes entirely, such as the references to Ripley's daughter, as well as the early scene on the colony and the Derelict Ship. Cameron hesitated to cut the latter, as it was the only direct link with the original film. He later realized that Hurd was right, as these scenes could be cut without damaging the plot, and deleting them brought the film neatly under 135 minutes. All these scenes were restored in the Special Edition that was created 6 years later.
- #129
- #130
Contains a major spoiler — show
On 21 September 1983, writer/director James Cameron turned in his first story treatment for the film, still called "Alien II" at the time (found as a bonus on the 1991 Collector's Edition Laserdisc and the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVD Box Set). Some of the major differences between this initial treatment and the final film included the following: * Instead of a chestburster nightmare, Ripley dreams of coming face-to-face with the Alien in an airlock onboard the Nostromo. * Ripley is brought to Earth Station Beta, which has an actual garden; Gateway Station is where the Colonial Marines (called Colonial Guard here) are stationed. * Ripley's daughter is still alive, and they have a disheartening videophone conversation where she bitterly blames Ripley for abandoning her by going to space. * Weyland-Yutani no longer exists (bought up by another firm), and there is no Carter Burke. Ripley is met by a man called Dr. O'Neil instead, who does not join her and the marines to the colony planet, so there is no company plot to secretly obtain a Xenomorph specimen * The name of the colony planet is Acheron, taken from the script of Alien (1979), instead of LV-426. * There are multiple atmospheric processors on the planet instead of just one. * Newt's father goes into the Derelict ship alone, and all contact with him is lost. His wife calls for help and leads a search team inside, where they discover the Space Jockey (half-buried under volcanic debris). They find Russ Jordan in the Egg chamber with a Facehugger on his head, and the team is then jumped by dozens of them. * The APC isn't deployed until the marines decide to extend their search to the Atmosphere Processor (as there are no PDTs to track), which is also covered by the Aliens' nest on the outside. More colonists are found alive inside. * The Aliens sting people with their tail to paralyze them before they are kidnapped. This happens to Apone, who is saved, but never wakes up again; Gorman remains conscious, but his later orders are mostly ignored by the others. - The dropship crashes directly into the Atmosphere Processor, sparing the APC, which is later used to barricade the colony's entrance. * Bishop, who has remained on the Sulaco, is contacted, but since landing the second dropship will take time, Ripley and Hicks go on an unsuccessful search for a shuttle. * The marines only fortify the colony's outside, never realizing that the Aliens can enter through the basement tunnel until it is too late; Hudson gets caught, and after a failed attempt to flee with the APC, only a small group makes it to a series of air vents alive. * A cocooned Hudson contacts them by radio, describing a room with one "huge Alien" and a shuttle, before contact is suddenly lost. * While escaping through the vents, Vasquez and Gorman sacrifice themselves for Ripley, Newt and Hicks, who make it to the landing zone. However, Bishop refuses to land and pick them up, since the risk of Xenomorphs getting off the planet is too great. He tells a cursing Ripley: "I guess you were right about me all along." * The three survivors allow themselves to get stung and abducted by Aliens; they are not paralyzed as they had injected themselves with atropine. As expected, they end up being cocooned in the room with the shuttle, by smaller, albino versions of the warrior Aliens that have tubes extending from their stomachs for implanting Chestbursters into victims directly. Ripley shoots them, battles the Queen, and uses the colonists' shuttle to get back to the Sulaco with Newt (the Queen has secretly stowed away on it as well); Hicks chooses to stay behind, as he has already been impregnated. * The first draft script was turned in by Cameron on 30 May 1985, which was quite different from the treatment, but very close to the final film.
- #131
Contains a major spoiler — show
James Cameron, whose brother joined the Marines while he was making this film, recognizes how rebellious and unbelievable to the real Marine Corps the soldiers in the film are. He notes the soldiers in the film were informed by Viet Nam era troops and even apologizes to members of the Marine Corps for getting it "wrong."
- #132
Contains a major spoiler — show
Sigourney Weaver had initially been very hesitant to reprise her role as Ripley (though this is often a bargaining tactic used by actors to increase their salary demands). She had rejected numerous offers from Fox Studios to do any sequels, fearing that her character would be poorly written, and a sub-par sequel could hurt the legacy of Alien (1979). However, she was so impressed by the high quality of James Cameron's script - specifically, the strong focus on Ripley, the mother-daughter bond between her character and Newt, and the incredible precision with which Cameron wrote her character, that she finally agreed to do the film. She was of course disappointed when Cameron had to shorten the movie, and cut the scene where Burke brings Ripley the bad news of her daughter's passing; Weaver felt that it would have completed the circle of the mother-daughter bond with Newt, and said that the scene's omission prevented her from fully enjoying the film at the premiere. However, this scene was later restored in the Special Edition.
- #133
Contains a major spoiler — show
The concept of the Aliens reproducing through an egg-laying Queen (similar to many insects) was James Cameron's idea. It actually contradicts a concept from Dan O'Bannon's Alien (1979) screenplay where the Alien transforms one of the humans into an egg, and thereby continues the life cycle on its own; this 'egg-morphing' scene was actually filmed and deleted from the original version, but famously re-inserted into the Alien 2003 Director's Cut at the fans' request. Cameron later admitted that he was aware of this egg-transforming concept while making Aliens, but he found it too restrictive, and as this was an idea that was not explicitly established on screen at the time, he was free to go with his own plan. Fans have since theorized that the Queen is the species' standard form of reproduction, but the egg-morphing can be employed as an emergency whenever a solitary creature is cut off from its hive.
- #134
- #135
Contains a major spoiler — show
When James Cameron was presented with the challenge of cutting Aliens down to 130 minutes, the length the studio required the film to be, he couldn't figure out what he could cut to keep the film still intact. It was Gale Anne Hurd's idea to cut the entire third reel out, and the story still works. This is the sequence where Newt's father is attacked by a Facehugger.
- #136
There was talk of bringing back the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, designer of the original Alien creature, to do more design work for the second film, but James Cameron opposed it because Giger was still working on Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) and Cameron had already hired Ron Cobb and Syd Mead for the futuristic buildings and artifacts. Moreover, there was only one major creature design to be done, the Alien Queen, for which Cameron had made some drawings. Cameron later admitted he had considered asking Giger but feared the eccentric artist would be overwhelming and difficult to work with. When Cameron later heard that Giger was upset at not being asked back, he wrote him a letter of apology. Despite his frustration at not being invited to return, Giger still called the film's designs and execution "beautifully done" and praised the Queen's appearance, commenting: "I love the fight at the end. The Alien Queen is very complicated, just like the one I did. I love the way she moves, and the scenes with Ripley are very good."
- #137
The Special Edition comes with seventeen minutes of additional scenes: Ripley talking with Burke about her daughter, her demotion in rank, Newt's family discovering the derelict alien ship on LV-426, a tour of the Sulaco, Hudson boasting about his weapons, Ripley's hesitation before entering the colony, the robot sentry guns repelling two Alien assaults, the marines theorizing about an Alien leader, and Hicks and Ripley sharing their first names. There is also a scene of a child riding a Bigwheel bike, which also appeared in James Cameron's The Terminator.
- #138
James Cameron struggled to win the trust of the British crew, most of whom had worked on the first film. Although The Terminator had been a box-office success in the US, it had failed in the UK. Cameron arranged screenings of Terminator on set, but most crew members ignored the invitation.
- #139
The set became the scene of great animosity between the British crew and Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. The crew saw Cameron as inexperienced and unworthy of Scott's legacy, and looked down on Hurd as well. Cameron and Hurd, in turn, found the crew lazy and disrespectful. After filming, Cameron said he would never return to Pinewood, and indeed he never did; however, he later hired Lamont on True Lies and Titanic. Ironically, Ridley Scott had had a similar experience on Blade Runner.
- #140
- #141
Sigourney Weaver was initially reluctant to reprise the role of Ripley; she feared a bad sequel would damage Alien's legacy. However, James Cameron's script won her over, especially its focus on Ripley and the mother-daughter bond with Newt, and she accepted. She could not fully enjoy the film at the premiere because of a scene Cameron had cut (in which Burke brings news of her daughter's death); that scene was restored in the Special Edition.
- #142
Cameron had built the script around Ripley and was horrified to learn that Weaver had not yet been approached. Weaver showed interest, but the studio objected to her salary demands. Cameron said that if there was no deal by the time they returned from their honeymoon, they would withdraw from the project. As a bluff, he told Schwarzenegger's manager that he planned to write Ripley out of the script; the information reached Weaver's representative and the deal was signed quickly. Cameron said that if his bluff had failed, the film would have been cancelled.
- #143
In the original script, while searching for Newt, Ripley encounters a cocooned Burke; Burke asks for help, and Ripley gives him a live grenade. The scene was shot but Cameron disliked it and cut it; he added the reactor explosion to conceal Burke's death. The scene was not included in the Special Edition either; its existence was known for years from a single frame, until it was released on Blu-Ray.
- #144
Fox president Lawrence Gordon hired Cameron to write the script and allowed him to direct The Terminator; he agreed to wait, with a directing option if Cameron succeeded. At that stage Cameron had completed only 90 pages, but Gordon loved what he had written and said the decision was very clear.
- #145
Bringing H.R. Giger back for the second film was considered, but Cameron objected; Giger was working on another project, and Cameron had hired Cobb and Mead. There was also no major creature design other than the Queen. Cameron feared Giger would be difficult, and when he heard Giger was upset at not being called back, he wrote a letter of apology. Giger praised the designs and the Queen.
- #146
Sigourney Weaver was paid 1 million dollars for the role of Ripley; that was 30 times her salary on the first film, and she also had a share of the profits. Her salary increased in later films: 5.5 million for Alien³ and 11 million dollars for Alien: Resurrection, though the films became less profitable.
- #147
The Weyland-Yutani Corporation was almost absent from the film; in Cameron's first draft the company had been bought out and the character of Burke did not exist. The marines' mission would not have been a corporate cover-up. In the finished film and in Alien³, the company is regarded as the true villain, while the Aliens are the direct antagonists.
- #148
- #149
Cameron based his script on a story he wrote in 1981 titled 'E.T.', but upon hearing about Spielberg's E.T. he changed the title first to 'Protein', then to 'Mother'. The story was about a genetically engineered female hybrid on Venus; the term 'xenomorph' came from there. In the end, Ripley fought the hybrid protecting its offspring in a power loader. The Marines were added at the request of Giler and Hill. Cameron's PTSD research for Rambo II helped with Ripley's story arc. The idea of a poisonous planetary atmosphere was reused in Avatar.
- #150
The first cut was nearly 150 minutes, which was commercially risky. While Cameron did not know how to shorten it, Hurd suggested cutting several scenes entirely: references to Ripley's daughter, the early scene in the colony, and the Derelict Ship. Cameron hesitated to cut the second but saw that Hurd was right; these scenes were restored in the Special Edition.
- #151
One of the deleted scenes reveals that Ripley had a daughter named Amanda, who died of cancer at the age of 66. Amanda is the protagonist of the video game Alien: Isolation; its events take place 15 years after the first film. While investigating her mother's fate, Amanda encounters a Xenomorph infestation on the Sevastopol station; this infestation began when the salvage ship that found the Nostromo's flight recorder picked up the Engineer signal.
- #152
- #153
- #154
Cameron recalls his experience with producers Giler and Hill as difficult. They gave him a vague premise: Ripley returns to the planet with soldiers. Cameron figured out the rest himself and wrote a 90-page script. Giler was furious and said, 'You'll never work in this town again!' Cameron was later disappointed to learn that Giler and Hill had credited themselves as the third writers, a situation similar to what Dan O'Bannon experienced on Alien.
- #155
- #156
- #157
Alien (1979) had been an unexpected box-office success, but 20th Century Fox was not particularly keen on a sequel. At the time, the prevailing wisdom was that sequels cost twice as much and earned half as much. Producers David Giler and Walter Hill moved early with the support of Fox production chief Alan Ladd Jr., who had approved the original. However, when Ladd left the company to found his own production company, his replacement, Norman Levy, had no faith in the project. Moreover, the producers were in litigation with Fox over Alien's profits. The studio was not open to ideas until the lawsuit was settled in 1983 and a management change took place at Fox in 1984. Development executive Larry Wilson suggested James Cameron as screenwriter; Cameron wrote the first draft. Although some executives felt the draft was 'horror from beginning to end and needed character development,' the newly appointed studio president, Lawrence Gordon, liked it very much, immediately greenlit it, and gave Cameron time to develop the script while he directed The Terminator (1984).
- #158
A scene set in the colony before the alien outbreak (around the 16th minute, only in the long version) was cut from the final edit and reinserted in the Special Version. A Weyland-Yutani employee asks why the Company wants them to check certain remote coordinates on the planet; his superior says that getting an answer takes weeks and that the answer is always 'Don't ask.' Elements of this scene later appeared in other James Cameron projects: in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), the scene introducing Miles Dyson at Cyberdyne follows the same pace and tone; an employee stops a superior, they walk together, they talk about their employer's mysterious behavior, and it ends with the line '...don't ask.' The character name 'Lydecker' was used in Dark Angel (2000).
- #159
- #160
- #161
James Cameron said that while making the film he knew nothing about how big corporations work, so he portrayed them as a large, shadowy entity. However, he later admitted that the character of Burke (Paul Reiser) was not very realistic: he had written him as a ruthless schemer, but realized that most corporate men are 'spineless and that Burke would not take proactive risks for greed.' Reiser, for his part, described Burke as 'misunderstood'; a man who does not intend to do bad things but feels compelled to do so in order to protect the Company's interests.
- #162
Dan O'Bannon had changed the title of the previous film's script from 'Star Beast' to Alien (1979) because he had noticed how often the word 'alien' was used. James Cameron likewise changed the title of his script from 'Alien II' to 'Aliens' for the same reason. It is even said that, to convince the studio, he wrote 'Aliens' as 'Alien$' to emphasize its box-office potential. He liked this so much that if anyone on set called the film 'Alien II,' he would sharply correct them.
- #163
- #164
- #165
- #166
James Cameron said: 'Ridley made the first film and with that single film he inspired an entire generation of directors and science fiction fans. There were many films that sprang from it, including my Aliens. I did this as a fan; I wanted to honor his film but also to say what I wanted to say. After that I take no responsibility.'
- #167
Tensions rose between director James Cameron and the British crew during the shoot. Cameron said, 'I wasn't a very experienced filmmaker at the time; this was only my second film' (ignoring Piranha II: The Spawning (1982)). Gale Anne Hurd and Stan Winston recall that it was a mock rebellion and that many crew members did not think Cameron had the talent or experience to make a sequel to Sir Ridley Scott's beloved Alien (1979). The Terminator (1984) had barely been seen in the United Kingdom, and Pinewood Studios' own contracted crew had union rights such as tea breaks and fixed working hours that Cameron and Hurd were not used to. Hurd recounts that the 'clock-punchers' disrupted the shooting pace with tea breaks or by leaving before setups were finished. In one instance, the set had been smoked for an hour to reach the desired level of fog, and just as Cameron wanted to shoot, a tea lady came in and all the smoke escaped through the open door. Hurd and Winston stated that the leader of this 'rebellion' was first assistant director Derek Cracknell, who considered himself better suited to direct the film than Cameron. On the day Cracknell was fired, a mass walkout nearly took place; this could have ended Cameron's and Hurd's careers because of the loss of the money Fox had spent on the production. However, after actress Sigourney Weaver brokered a truce, Cameron and Hurd made more of an effort to get along with the British crew and to respect their work routines.
- #168
Producing the film in Hollywood could have cost 35 million dollars, and 20th Century Fox was not willing to spend that amount. Producing the film in the United Kingdom was not for emotional reasons but mostly a budgetary decision: financial incentives and a favorable exchange rate reduced costs by 20 million dollars.
- #169
- #170
James Cameron began his career doing special effects for Roger Corman (Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)). Years earlier, Corman had directed The Little Shop of Horrors (1960); it was later made as a musical (Little Shop of Horrors (1986)), also at Pinewood Studios, and was filmed at the same time as this film. In that film there is a scene in which Orin Scrivello (Steve Martin) rips off a girl's doll's head. In Aliens, Newt (Carrie Henn) carries a severed doll's head.
- #171
In 1992, Kenner approached 20th Century Fox to produce a toy line and a related animated series for this film. Fox created a pilot episode for a series titled 'Operation: Aliens', but shelved it without airing, probably because of the disappointing reception of Alien³ (1992) and the difficulty of adapting an R-rated series into a children's program. The Kenner toys were released anyway. The pilot episode never surfaced, but animation frames leaked online.
- #172
- #173
- #174
- #175
- #176
- #177
When the alien queen's tail pierced his chest, Lance Henriksen got food poisoning from the mixture of milk, yogurt and cream he had to vomit. The lactose mixture, waiting under the hot studio lights, bred bacteria; after three days it smelled so bad that the crew could not get near Henriksen. He never complained. The crew on the first Alien film had not used milk in Ash's death scene because they knew it would spoil. Special effects artist Alec Gillis apologized; Henriksen forgave him and said he would use that feeling in his performance.
- #178
When Fox executives watched the early cut, they thought the money had gone more into the sets than into the special effects. Producer Gale Anne Hurd took pleasure in telling them that most of the sets they saw were miniatures or optical effects. The artists were pleased that their work had fooled the money men.
- #179
- #180
- #181
It took 14 to 16 operators to bring the alien queen to life because the head, neck, body, legs, face, lips, jaws and tongue moved independently. Stan Winston made a mold out of fiberglass and foam and covered it with black garbage bags; inside were two puppeteers. James Cameron shot a test video with his own camera to prove to the studio that such a creature was possible. The test was so successful that the 'garbage bag test' became a term in the industry. The full animatronic creature was so convincing that Steven Spielberg tasked Winston with building the T-Rex for Jurassic Park (1993).
- #182
According to Lance Henriksen, Full Metal Jacket (1987) was also being shot nearby during the production of Aliens. The crews often got together at parties. Both films are about the US Marine Corps, and both casts included a Vietnam veteran (R. Lee Ermey and Al Matthews). Both played sergeants who used the phrase 'assholes and elbows.' Coincidentally, both actors died in 2018.
- #183
- #184
The armored personnel carrier (APC) is a modified aircraft tug that British Airways used for towing planes. The truck they bought weighed 75 tons; they removed most of the lead and brought it down to 35 tons. Even so, it was so heavy that the construction crew had to reinforce several floors.
- #185
In the first Alien film, Bolaji Badejo, who was 2.13 meters tall, was used to play the alien. Because this film required many aliens, stunt performers 1.83 meters tall were hired, and they would rarely appear in the same frame as humans. In some shots, remote-controlled puppets with thin arms and legs were used to avoid the 'man in a suit' look. Some were filled with two chemicals that mixed when pierced by bullets, producing smoke that simulated acid burns. Only six costumes were used at any one time; most were a few latex pieces worn over black tights. Hundreds of alien images were achieved thanks to clever editing, lighting and liquid.
- #186
The body mounts for Vasquez and Drake's smart guns were taken from Steadicam equipment. The guns weighed 70 to 90 pounds and the Velcro straps would not hold. James Cameron decided the crew should use duct tape. This meant they could not take bathroom breaks. Rolston and Goldstein claimed they were taped up for so long that they dreamed about it.
- #187
According to Al Matthews, while James Remar was still in the role of Hicks, he was using an Ithaca Model 37 pump-action shotgun and accidentally put a hole in the set of Little Shop of Horrors (1986), which was being shot next to Aliens at Pinewood Studios. Matthews said, 'Where did you get live rounds?'
- #188
- #189
Armourer Terry English was given only two weeks to build three sets of armour for each actor. When he returned to his workshop, he realised he had forgotten the fabric needed for the camouflage. Rather than go back, he painted the armour from memory. The result did not resemble the British Army DPM pattern. Fortunately, Cameron liked the contrast between the armour and the BDUs and made the armour more prominent. The graffiti on the armour was done by the actors; English helped with details such as the buckle and padlock on Hicks's chest armour. The armour was handmade from aluminium and was one-size-fits-all; on set it was adjusted to fit each actor.
- #190
After Ripley sets off the sprinklers in the MedLab, she is attacked by a facehugger. The creature leaps from the table leg, wraps its tail around her neck and crawls towards her. James Cameron had a special facehugger designed for this scene: the mechanism worked like a pull toy, with its limbs set to make a walking motion. To make the creature appear to leap, Cameron placed it on the table leg and pulled it backwards, then played the film in reverse. The water falling could have been a problem in reverse playback, but fortunately the water was not visible.
- #191
- #192
James Cameron fell out with cinematographer Dick Bush. Bush refused the dark lighting Cameron wanted and insisted on shooting the set with bright light. This conflict caused delays in the production. Cameron eventually had Bush fired; this led to the crew walking out. Gale Anne Hurd persuaded them to return once everyone had calmed down. Adrian Biddle, who had been a focus puller on Alien, was brought in to replace him and, as Cameron wanted, shot with as much practical lighting as possible.
- #193
Composer James Horner said that James Cameron gave him very little time and that he therefore had to use elements from his scores for Star Trek II and III. He also adapted the 'Gayane Ballet Suite' for the main and end credits music. Tensions in post-production were so high that Horner thought he would never work with Cameron again. However, when Cameron liked the music for Braveheart, the two agreed to work together on Titanic. They won an Oscar with Titanic and collaborated again on Avatar.
- #194
The actors playing the Marines underwent two weeks of gruelling boot camp training before filming. The training was run by former S.A.S. soldier Tip Tipping (Private Crowe) and former Marine sergeant Al Matthews (Apone). Sigourney Weaver, Paul Reiser and William Hope did not take part in the training; Cameron thought this would create a disconnect between the characters and the team. Michael Biehn also did not take part because he replaced James Remar after filming had begun.
- #195
For the scene in which the Queen impales Bishop with her tail, Stan Winston and James Cameron designed an effect in full view in which the tail pierces Bishop's chest while he is standing. Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis made a chest plate for Lance Henriksen containing a flexible rubber tail; the tail was pulled with a wire to create the impaling effect. In the next shot, Henriksen wore a harness with a rigid tail piece at the front; the rear was attached to the Queen puppet. Henriksen stood on a see-saw so that his feet would remain out of frame. For the scene in which the Queen tears him in two, Woodruff and Gillis made a puppet carrying Henriksen's expression. Richardson placed a spring-loaded skeleton inside the puppet. The Queen's hands went into slots in the puppet and the separation was achieved with a spring-loaded motion. The upper half that falls to the ground, while grabbing Newt, was a upper-torso puppet made by Woodruff and Gillis that sprayed organic intestines and a milky substance. Henriksen's head and arms extended through a hole in the set floor. Lindsay Macgowan recalls that Henriksen shot in this rig for two or three days and that the stench from the milk spoiling was unbearable, but that Henriksen never complained.
- #196
The film was shot mostly under a bluish light to create a strange and alien atmosphere. The colours of the Marines' camouflage uniforms and the Humbrol 'Brown Bess' paint on the pulse rifles were chosen to harmonise with this blue lighting. In natural light these colours look very different from how they appear on screen.
- #197
- #198
- #199
- #200
The facehuggers kept by the colonists were stored in water-filled jars to guard against the risk of acid secretion; the acid would be diluted by the water and the jar would be prevented from bursting. While Bishop says the acid of dead creatures is neutralized, the original Alien script had a scene where a dead facehugger immediately decayed and leaked plenty of acid.
- #201
- #202
In the scene where Vasquez shoots a creature in the ventilation shaft, Jenette Goldstein could not control the weapon's recoil. Producer Gale Anne Hurd served as a stunt double in the shots where the weapon was fired. Goldstein's flinch was also masked in the fight in the operations room; in the scene where she throws a grenade, it was hidden with cuts.
- #203
The model of the abandoned alien ship is the same one used in the first film. Fox had given the model to Bob Burns; this prop, which sat in Burns's driveway, was loaned out for its brief appearance in the film. The model had been battered over the years, which was fortunate because the ship needed to be damaged. Because of its fragility, it was not sent to the UK; it was shot in the US and returned to Burns. Burns later sent the ship to a collector to have it restored, but the ship was taken and sold at auction. Its current whereabouts are unknown.
- #204
- #205
- #206
The screens in the background are actually TVs playing video. Because the film was shot in the United Kingdom, the TVs run at 25 fps while the film is 24 fps; to achieve synchronization, the shots with monitors were filmed at 25 fps, which caused the images to appear slightly slow when projected at 24 fps.
- #207
- #208
- #209
- #210
James Cameron wanted to shoot the film in 2.35:1 but hated anamorphic lenses. Super 35 was ruled out on the grounds that it was too grainy, and it was shot in 1.85 with normal 35 mm. Ironically, the film ended up with one of the grainiest 70 mm transfers, and Cameron said he wished he had shot in a wider frame. He shot all his subsequent films in Super 35 and became regarded as the gold standard for the process. In the 4K restoration, grain was reduced using AI-assisted technology, which led to controversy.
- #211
James Horner's schedule allowed him only 7 weeks to work on the film. When he arrived in London, he found the film was still being shot and had not been edited; he waited 3 weeks to begin. By the time he started, only 2 weeks remained before the planned recording session. He wrote his last piece overnight and recorded it on the final day of the recording session. After Horner left for another film, additional music had to be added.
- #212
In the scene where the marines go to the nest in the APC, James Cameron told Carrie Henn to whisper something to her doll Casey. Later, when additional dialogue was being recorded and Henn was asked to repeat her lines, she admitted that she had actually whispered something like 'This is stupid, why am I talking to a baby?'. The recording team had her say 'It's okay, don't worry, everything's going to be fine', and this matched her mouth movements well enough. Henn never told Cameron about this.
- #213
For the scene where Newt appears behind an Alien in the sewer, Carrie Henn was asked to scream loudly, and she did. The scream was so convincing that the crew feared they had emotionally traumatized the young actress. However, Henn later assured them it was entirely acting; before the scene she had talked with the stunt performer in the Alien costume for a while, so its sudden appearance had not frightened her at all.
- #214
Most of the British crew members stopped working at certain times for contractually agreed tea breaks. Carrie Henn remembered these breaks as her favorite moments of the day, while the non-British actors, the crew and especially director James Cameron were annoyed by them because they slowed down the production unnecessarily. One day, the complex choreography of the colony scene before the Alien infestation had been prepared, and just as Cameron was about to begin, he noticed that every crew member was queuing up to get food from the tea lady; this took so long that he could have shot at least two takes. Cameron also got in line, asked how much the entire trolley would cost him, paid the tea lady, and then tipped over the trolley. After a long silence, he told the crew that from then on, instead of everyone going one by one, each department head should get snacks for the whole group, otherwise he would move the production elsewhere and they would all be out of work. Cameron later joked that he still planned to find the tea lady or her relatives and apologize.
- #215
While filming on the shuttle set that carries the marines to LV-426, the ceiling collapsed when the controls began shaking the set to simulate the shuttle's descent. A large piece of the set struck James Cameron on the head, causing the director to bleed. Lance Henriksen asked, 'Do you think they did that on purpose?'
- #216
This film is the second of two franchises in which James Horner scored the sequel to a film Jerry Goldsmith had scored first. The other is the Star Trek franchise, in which Goldsmith scored Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and Horner scored Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Both franchises began in 1979.
- #217
- #218
The Queen was brought to life through a combination of a full-size animatronic model and small-scale miniatures. The full-size Queen, built by Stan Winston's team, used a combination of stunt performers placed inside and external manipulation; this innovative approach was devised by James Cameron. The concept was first tested in the parking lot of Winston's Los Angeles studio with a rough mock-up covered in black garbage bags (affectionately dubbed the 'Garbage Bag Queen' by the team). The final full-size puppet was built in England and mounted on a large crane; thanks to clever editing, it never appears on screen. Although only a body shell was used for most of the shooting, for shots showing the Queen from behind, a second puppet with a different mechanism for enclosing the stunt performers inside was built.
- #219
- #220
- #221
The Alien Queen was initially planned to be done with stop motion, but James Cameron wanted it all done live. Stan Winston stated that the Queen seen in the final battle (or, in his words, 'the largest puppet in cinema history') was brought to life using rod puppets, hydraulics, radio controls and wires. Because the full-size Queen could only be moved slowly, these scenes were shot at a lower frame rate and Sigourney Weaver also had to move much more slowly; when played back at normal speed, the Queen's movements would speed up accordingly. For some wide shots in the final battle, detailed miniatures of the Queen and Ripley in the Power Loader were used. While shooting the shot in which the Power Loader is ejected from the airlock, a piece of cloth was held underneath to catch the expensive miniature; unfortunately it tore through the cloth and fell to the floor, and it had to be quickly glued back together for additional shots.
- #222
- #223
- #224
James Cameron stated that he does not much like the anamorphic widescreen format, and cited the problems he experienced while working on visual effects on Escape from New York (1981) as the catalyst for this dislike. His only regret about the film is that he did not shoot it in widescreen to be more consistent with Ridley Scott's look in Alien (1979); he still thinks Scott's film looks better. Cameron also thinks the Facehuggers in the first film look better than those in this film.
- #225
- #226
- #227
The adult creature design was largely preserved, but some changes were made. The most obvious difference is the ridges on the head that existed in the original but were covered with a gel layer for a smooth appearance. Other differences: a different ridge and bone pattern on the neck, a longer and more slender body with two extra ribs, limbs with a more pronounced bone pattern, three fingers instead of five on the hand, and redesigned feet. Two small arms were also added to the chestburster.
- #228
- #229
In the scenes of the Queen's fight with the Power Loader and the egg-laying organ in the nest, miniatures were used alongside the full-size puppet. The miniatures were made by Shane Mahan, Alec Gillis, John Rosengrant and Shawn McEnroe. Gillis said the live-action and miniature shots were combined so seamlessly that at the premiere he could not tell which was which.
- #230
Stan Winston, inspired by the Alien Queen concept, looked for ways to hide two performers in a single costume. "I wanted to create an alien that didn't look like a man in a suit," he said. "So I came up with the idea of putting a small person on the back of a large man who would stand up and walk backwards."
- #231
The first cinematographer was Dick Bush, but James Cameron was unhappy with his lighting and fired him after a month. Cameron tried to hire Derek Vanlint, Ridley Scott's cinematographer on Alien, but Vanlint wasn't interested; instead, he suggested Adrian Biddle, who had previously worked on Alien as a focus puller but had never served as DP. Biddle later worked with Scott on Thelma & Louise and 1492: Conquest of Paradise.
- #232
In the script, the Sulaco was described as "a steel mountain behind metal towers... ugly, battered, functional." Syd Mead initially designed a large, circular ship, but Cameron wanted something longer. Cameron drew a sketch resembling a large smoothbore rifle used by marines, and Mead used it as the basis for the redesign. Only one side of the model was completed, saving money.
- #233
When James Cameron reunited with his The Terminator collaborator Stan Winston for Aliens, his goal was to stay true to H.R. Giger's biomechanical aesthetic while pushing it forward: the Chestburster would have arms, the Drones' skulls would be more bony, and an entirely new character would be designed: the Alien Queen. And her face had to be "perfect."
- #234
- #235
- #236
In the extended version, when the Colonial Marines first call the complex, there is no trace other than battle damage. However, when Hicks detects an object on the motion tracker and waits outside the colony rooms with Vasquez, a bloody or dusty handprint is seen on the door; this is the only blood trace seen in the complex.
- #237
Unlike the slow-moving terror of Ridley Scott's original Alien, James Cameron made the xenomorphs fast, active and dynamic. Stan Winston Studios loaded the cables and controls onto a cart to make the cable-controlled puppets more maneuverable, so the puppets could be repositioned quickly. Different Alien versions were made for Cameron's vision: puppets with an articulated upper body, mechanical lips and jaw for close-ups; lightweight black tights worn by stunt performers for action scenes; and poseable figures for dangerous scenes.
- #238
The cast remembers the intensity of the production and Cameron's hands-on style. Lance Henriksen says that at one point the production faced a threat of being moved elsewhere because the union was not used to Cameron's fast-paced working method. Bill Paxton notes that Cameron moved lights and cut holes in walls when necessary, which was not really appropriate on a union set.
- #239
- #240
In an early dream sequence showing Ripley's nightmare, the Chestburster is seen being pushed out of her chest. Winston found this effect particularly effective because those who saw the first film know exactly what is happening, yet the creature never bursts out. Sigourney Weaver was on an inclined board under the bed, with a spare body rig above her and an operator below pushing the Chestburster upward. Tom Woodruff was largely responsible for this effect.
- #241
- #242
The special effects team had painted one of the Alien costumes in bluish tones, but when Cameron saw the costume on set he didn't like the color. Despite the team's objections, he insisted on making the costume pitch black because the Aliens needed to blend into the black hive. He painted it black himself while the performer was still inside the costume.
- #243
Cameron stated that the Power Loader fight between the Queen and Ripley was the combination of the best live-action animatronic and miniature shots of its time. He said that if it had been CGI the fight would have been more dynamic, but with traditional effects they had to use short shots to hide the behind-the-scenes work, which made the scene more tense and atmospheric. He added that the scene would not have worked without Weaver's natural reactions to the monster.
- #244
The Queen Alien was played by Stuart St Paul and Malcolm Weaver; these were the only two people Cameron would put inside the queen. The real Queen was built around them, and they were strapped in back to back. Neck muscles moved the head, their feet operated a pedal to swing the tail, and the arms and wrists were manipulated like a puppet. They had headphones and took instructions from Cameron. They were strapped in at the start of the day, taken out for lunch and not strapped back in until the end of the day. Bathroom breaks were very rare.
- #245
- #246
In the scene where the hive is introduced, the camera slides down the ceiling of the colony structure, coated in a resinous material. The sequence uses a hanging miniature designed by Robert and Dennis Skotak, combined with forced perspective. The miniature was 10 feet tall and 12 feet wide and had to be blended with the full-size hive set behind it. Cameron decided to shoot the sequence in fog, so less steam was used on the miniature. Dennis Skotak said the blend was instantaneous and that they were constantly on alert to catch the moment when everything looked right.
- #247
The Alien Eggs underwent cosmetic changes, such as the petals moving downward along their entire length. Rick Lazzarini designed the hero animatronic. Winston's studio also built background eggs and miniature eggs. The role of the Chestburster was expanded; it could now run on its eight legs and leap again if it missed on the first lunge. The design was partly changed, with its lower part inspired by Giger's paintings. Cameron said he wanted to preserve Giger's sexual undertone. Winston noted that the new Chestburster was more organic, that nails were added to its fingertips and that the tail was extended by six inches.
- #248
One of the Chestburster animatronics was designed to run along the ground. Winston said they initially started with the idea of a pull toy, but that Cameron was inspired by the wire-guided fish idea from Piranha II. In the end, the Chestburster was on a wire that wrapped around a rubber-coated gear inside and was kept taut by two operators. When pulled along the wire, the gear moved the legs. If pulled quickly, the legs moved quickly; if pulled slowly, they moved slowly. Lazzarini added that if the front operator moved the cable quickly up and down, the Chestburster could jump.
- #249
The nest was built as a giant makeup for the Power Station set. It was carved out of clay in various components and molded in latex and fiberglass. Production designer Peter Lamont said they took two casts a day, that there were hundreds of pieces and that they spent three weeks placing the pieces. Most of the colonists inside the cocoons were sculpted dummies whose faces were taken from the actors.
- #250
In the Med Lab scene, two Facehuggers in the still tubes are still alive. The models were controlled by cables. Winston said that for the creature, which had to be operated underwater, they tried methods such as air pressure and water pressure, but that in the end Ray Lowell came up with a cable-operated spring-loaded tail. When the cable was pulled, the tail curled; when released, it unfurled like a whip.
- #251
The scene in which the Queen impales and tears apart Bishop with her dagger-like tail tip was a multi-stage effect. First, a slightly raised chest plate was made for Lance Henriksen, and a flexible rubber tail was placed inside it. The tail was pulled up through his shirt by an unseen wire. Then, in a transition, a harness running through Lance's back was used, and the tail was connected to the Queen's real tail. Lance was placed on a seesaw and lifted. The two-part dummy had a spring-loaded skeleton, and the Queen's hands made it look as if she were really tearing the android apart.
- #252
Cameron brought drawings to the preliminary design meetings at Stan Winston's studio of an Alien Queen with a huge four-armed insectoid body and an 'elegant' crown-like head with a retractable face, filled with dagger-sized translucent teeth. After exchanging sketches with Winston, they arrived at the final design. The design was sculpted at 1/4 scale, and after approval the full-size version was sculpted in WED clay at Pinewood Studios.
- #253
When the film first aired on ITV in the UK in 1990, all the profanity was dubbed by unknown voice actors. For example, Hudson's line "The sergeant's gone! Get out of here!" was kept intact, while Ripley's line "You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage" was broadcast unchanged.
- #254
- #255
A fully articulated hero model was used for the Facehugger released by Burke in the Med Lab. Winston said the model required about nine operators. Another model without the tongue element was built for the scenes where it crawls across the table. A third model, with only finger joints, was used for its rapid movement along the wall. In addition, limp models with loosened fingers were made and blown into the air. Cameron said these simple methods worked for quick cuts.
- #256
The original Alien costumes were detailed but impractical; they could not perform the fast, agile movements Ridley Scott wanted. To avoid the same problem, Cameron and Winston redesigned the costumes with a focus on movement. Cameron said, "I thought fast, blurry, lizard-like or insect-like darting was more important than sculptural detail." Winston added: "Jim wanted the men inside the costumes to move strangely and oddly, not like humans. To achieve that, we removed the rubber suit entirely and added light foam pieces over black tights. Dry, they looked like nothing but black tights, but on film, wet and slimy, they were indistinguishable from the original and allowed complete freedom of movement." The film's lighting and angles also contributed to this illusion.
- #257
After James Cameron determined the Queen's appearance, he worked out the structure of the full-size animatronic and its translatability to the screen with Stan Winston. Winston did a test with a "garbage bag" mock-up: "We rented a crane, built a wooden platform to carry two stuntmen, and created a rough Queen mock-up out of black foam and plastic garbage bags. We used ski poles for the arms. We tested it in a parking lot and it worked; of course, it needed fine-tuning."
- #258
The Queen's head had a wide range of motion, and two versions were made: a durable fighting head and a lighter, finely tuned "hero" head. In addition to hydraulic controls, the hero head had a cable-operated tongue mechanism and the ability to tilt. The face could move independently of the head; in its first appearance, it extended outward as if emerging from its shell like a turtle. There was also a face that could rotate 360 degrees, cable-controlled jaws and snarling lips.
- #259
James Cameron is said to have shown "no mercy" to his small-scale Queen puppet. According to Phil Notaro, while the puppeteers repeatedly slammed the puppet hard into sliding doors, Cameron would say "that's how you do it" and hit three times harder than anyone else. Fortunately, the Queen was durable; although there were slips in the mechanisms, they were corrected with constant adjustments. There was also constant maintenance for scenes where it needed to look battered one day and brand new the next.
- #260
- #261
Construction of the full-size animatronic Queen began with the internal skeleton and a structure that would carry two stuntmen. The stuntmen were Nick Gillard and Malcolm Weaver. Winston said, "First we built the inner body: fiberglass shells to carry the stuntmen and an aluminum plate to carry the hydraulics. This determined the Queen's size." The support structure was built by Rick Lazzarini and Wayne Sturm, then sent to London. A workshop was set up at Pinewood, and separate skeletons were built for the legs, arms, body, head and tail.
- #262
The first section built was the tail. Winston said, "The simplest skeleton was for the tail, so I did that first. It was a good start to see the strengths and weaknesses of my team." The tail sculpture was made by Steve Norrington, John Robertson, Christine Overs and Philomena Davis; the internal mechanisms were designed by Ray Lovell and Richard Landon. The body was designed to accommodate two stuntmen; foam human figures were placed inside and a wire mesh skeleton was built around them. Welded steel skeletons were made for the head, arms and legs. The Queen's skin was cast in polyurethane foam to reduce weight; hard parts such as the crown were fiberglass. The puppet was supported in most scenes by a crane arm, either with wires or a bracket. Winston said, "The wires were for shots where the whole body was visible; the bracket was used in shots that did not show below the knees. The bracket came out of its back and connected to the crane arm at the pivot point, and was almost invisible." Two rotation devices provided forward-backward tilting and neck movement. Trevor Butterfield designed the hydraulic mechanisms.
- #263
The Queen's arms had to be light and highly maneuverable. Winston said, "It was critical that the large arms be light. The stuntmen's arms only extended to the elbows; forearm and hand movement was controlled at the wrist. We used a ski pole arrangement; the hands could be positioned or left hanging. On the fighting arms, the ski poles were foamed directly onto the forearm, which was durable. We also had very light, vacuum-formed shell arms, but they were fragile." Additional arms were made for places requiring dexterity, such as the scenes where it grabs Newt. Designed by Ray Lovell, these arms had fully articulated fingers controlled by cables from external operators. For the legs, Steve Norrington and Richard Landon designed two versions: one with full legs operated as a puppet with wires, and another with no foam below the calf, used for close-ups.
- #264
Inner stunt performers contributed to the Queen's lower-body and tail movement. Winston said, "There was an up-and-down hydraulic movement at the base of the tail; side-to-side movements were achieved by pressure the stunt performers applied to foot plates. This made the hips move from side to side. The outer tip of the tail was usually controlled by two or three wires."
- #265
Although James Cameron planned to use the full-scale Queen in most scenes, he decided to use a quarter-scale puppet for some movements. Stop-motion was initially considered but abandoned for budget and practical reasons. Cameron said, "Stop-motion would have created a stroboscopic effect in fast action. The rod-and-cable puppet seemed more appealing." Doug Beswick was hired because he had previously worked on The Terminator. The puppet was about 90 cm tall and was supported by a pole. Rods attached to its feet passed through slots in the floor. The Queen's slender design made the mechanical system difficult; Phil Notaro said, "The ribcage was very narrow, and we had to pass 49 cables through a 3.8 cm hole. The arms were only 1.9 cm in diameter but each had nine functions. We kept trying to convince Jim to simplify, but he stayed faithful to the design." In the end the puppet was fully articulated; the head, face, jaws, tongue, arms, fingers, back spines and tail could all move.
- #266
To reduce the number of puppeteers, Notaro designed coordinated cable functions controlled by a single joystick. "The head, neck and face functions were connected to a single joystick set, so one operator could control the character's expression. This provided more organic movement." The Queen's 49 cables were managed by a ten-joystick system operated by five puppeteers; there were also four assistants: two supported the Queen from above, and two moved the legs from below. At times the Queen was also filmed upside down.
- #267
The full-scale puppet was used in the scene where the Queen descends from the dropship after tearing Bishop apart. Winston said, "We ran wires from a pivot point on her back to the ship and to the top of the set. Stunt performers inside operated the arms; at the side we lowered the Queen down the ramp with wires. Wires attached to the knees and ankles controlled the legs. Her tail was also opened with wires. Jim had multiple cameras and we did the shot many times, but it was worth it."
- #268
- #269
The knife trick scene was originally going to be performed by Bishop alone. Lance Henriksen suggested to James Cameron that Hudson put his hand on top of his, and Cameron agreed. This change was discussed with almost everyone except Bill Paxton. Henriksen recalls a long night of drinking after filming the scene and that it was reshot, because the sped-up footage looked too artificial. During the reshoot he accidentally cut Paxton's little finger.
- #270
After reading James Cameron's script, Sigourney Weaver took a few notes; these were mostly about how Ripley should react to situations, and Cameron welcomed them. Cameron praised Weaver for raising no objections to the direction the story wanted to go, even on points where they disagreed. One of these was gun violence; Weaver had initially focused on the script's dialogue, not the stage directions. When she came to the set, she told Cameron that as a gun-control advocate she was uncomfortable with all the shooting. Cameron thought this was perfect for Ripley, because she too was reluctant to use a gun unless forced to, and he told Weaver to reflect that attitude in her performance. He also took her to a shooting range and had her try an automatic weapon, which Weaver had to admit was pretty cool.
- #271
For the scene in which Bishop works with a microscope in the laboratory and gives one of the Marines a frightening look, Lance Henriksen wanted to wear contact lenses with double pupils. He came to the set with the lenses, but after testing them James Cameron decided he did not need to wear them, because he was already playing the character creepily enough (Cameron later said the lenses made Bishop scarier than the Aliens).
- #272
- #273
- #274
In an interview with Moviefone, Sigourney Weaver said that when one of the actors was going to "die," she gave them a bouquet of flowers before the shoot. When it was Paul Reiser's turn to be killed, she gave him a bunch of wilted flowers. To Carrie Henn she gave a carved photograph after production ended.
- #275
James Cameron took the actors playing the Marines to the art department one afternoon and asked them to personalize their costumes (combat armor and coveralls) to add realism (much like soldiers in Vietnam writing on their helmets). German-born actress Cynthia Dale Scott plays Corporal Dietrich and has 'BLUE ANGEL' written on the back of her helmet, a reference to Marlene Dietrich's film The Blue Angel (1930), or to Blue Angel. Bill Paxton's armor reads 'Louise,' dedicated to his real-life wife Louise Newbury. Ricco Ross carved a heart into his armor and wanted to add the name of his then-partner Heather, but because there was no room left it became 'Heath.'
- #276
- #277
Lance Henriksen said he based the character of Bishop on his innocent 12-year-old self. During filming he would sometimes get lost in the role, leave the studio and wander around London, where the film was shot. Because he didn't know the area he would easily get lost and call the crew to ask how to get back to the studio. Henriksen also said that, just like his younger self, Bishop would forgive people who mistreated him, because he knew he would outlive them all.
- #278
The character of Hicks was initially played by James Remar, but Michael Biehn replaced him a few days after principal photography began. The reason often given for Remar's departure was 'creative differences' with director James Cameron, but in episode 128 of the 'Sidebar' podcast Remar admitted that he was fired because he was caught in possession of drugs during a period when he had developed a terrible drug problem. Producer Gale Anne Hurd later added that Remar was arrested while buying 'speedball' (heroin mixed with cocaine) from an undercover police officer, so it was impossible for them to keep him in the film. His legal efforts at least managed to have him deported from the United Kingdom, saving him from an 8-to-10-year prison sentence. Remar still appears in the finished film — he is visible in a single frame when the Marines enter the alien nest. Because he is wearing the same armor as Michael Biehn, it is impossible to tell the two actors apart when he is seen from behind.
- #279
- #280
When Lance Henriksen arrived in the United Kingdom for filming, he was nearly refused entry. In the US he had been rehearsing Bishop's knife trick with different types of knives because James Cameron didn't know which knife he would use. When he arrived in London he had carelessly brought all the knives in his luggage, and the customs officer was quite alarmed by what he saw.
- #281
- #282
Ricco Ross said that the reason director James Cameron named his character Frost was that he thought it would be ironic since he would be set on fire with a flamethrower. Ross had been worried that Frost would be the typical Black character killed off early in the film, but Cameron convinced him when he explained how the death would happen (being set on fire and falling three stories) and said that a strong, tall soldier would be a surprising first loss. Ross was especially pleased that the stuntman performed the scene three times because Cameron kept adding new things, such as Ross instinctively trying to put out the flames as he fell to his death.
- #283
Bill Paxton ran into his friend and colleague James Cameron shortly after Cameron got the directing job on the film. Paxton jokingly said, 'I hope you write me a good role,' and was then called in to audition. He used a fake plasma rifle but was very eager, and he thought his performance was overly exaggerated. Fortunately Cameron liked the energy Paxton displayed and offered him the role of the film's comic character, Private Hudson. Paxton gladly accepted, turning down the offer to play Zed in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985).
- #284
Michael Biehn had enjoyed working with James Cameron on The Terminator (1984) and was aware of Aliens; he was practically campaigning for the role of Corporal Hicks. However, Cameron wanted to work with different people early in his career, so he chose James Remar. Biehn was disappointed but moved on to other work. That is, until he got a phone call from producer Gale Anne Hurd one Friday night: Remar had been arrested for drug possession and Biehn needed to take over the role. Biehn began filming in London on Monday. Cameron and Hurd later said that Biehn brought a humanity to Hicks that they felt was missing from Remar's performance. Interestingly, a similar situation had occurred when John Hurt was cast as Kane in Alien (1979): Hurt had been considered but was unavailable, so Jon Finch was cast. When Finch fell ill, Hurt, whose schedule had opened up, was offered the role over the weekend and began filming on Monday.
- #285
- #286
Lance Henriksen was so moved by the effort James Cameron put in as director, writer and designer at the film's premiere that he promised to write Cameron a letter to properly express his feelings. However, he never did, and Cameron thought Henriksen hated the film. Fortunately, they eventually cleared everything up.
- #287
- #288
Jenette Goldstein's character Vasquez takes her name from Vasquez Rocks, a famous mountain range used in films and in the original Star Trek (1966) episode Arena (1967). Vasquez in turn inspired the character Tasha Yar in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), and Goldstein was initially considered for that role. She later made a brief appearance in Star Trek: Generations (1994). Bill Paxton's character Hudson, meanwhile, inspired the character Guy Fleegman in the Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest (1999), which also starred Sigourney Weaver.
- #289
Ricco Ross (Frost) and William Hope (Lieutenant Gorman) revealed that they were offered roles at the same time in Aliens and Full Metal Jacket (1987), both of which were to be shot in London. Hope was persuaded to choose Aliens when he learned it was from the producers of The Terminator (1984). Ross's eight-week shooting schedule for FMJ overlapped with his first week on Aliens, but because he wanted so much to work with Stanley Kubrick, he asked James Cameron for permission to appear in both films. Cameron agreed on the condition that Ross be available in the second week of Aliens filming. However, Kubrick could not guarantee Ross that his work would be finished by then (he said eight weeks could easily turn into eight months), so Ross chose only Aliens. When Aliens was released, Kubrick was still shooting FMJ.
- #290
- #291
Sigourney Weaver had planned to deliver the last word of the line 'Get away from her, you bitch' in a lower tone, but on the first take she accidentally went high-pitched. Director James Cameron, who normally does two or three takes, liked it and did not ask for another take. The line became so popular among fans that they almost always quote it like Ripley, emphasizing the last word.
- #292
- #293
- #294
Sigourney Weaver and James Cameron had a long debate over whether Ripley hates the creature. Cameron thought she did, but the actress was hesitant. Cameron saw the film directly as a revenge story and convinced Weaver with the idea that Ripley would do everything she could to keep what happened to her from happening to someone else.
- #295
For the role of Vasquez, the producers were looking for a muscular woman. Because they thought they would not find a muscular actress, they were seriously considering a female bodybuilder. According to Jenette Goldstein, when the producers saw her, they were a little surprised, because she was a trained actress with the athletic physique they were looking for.
- #296
- #297
Many characters in the film whose first names are never mentioned actually carry the first name of the actor playing them: for example, Sgt. Al Apone (Al Matthews), Cpl. Collette Ferro (Colette Hiller), Pfc. Jenette Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), Pvt. Mark Drake (Mark Rolston), Pvt. William Hudson (Bill Paxton), Pvt. Daniel Spunkmeyer (Daniel Kash), Pvt. Ricco Frost (Ricco Ross), Pvt. Trevor Wierzbowski (Trevor Steedman), Lance Bishop (Lance Henriksen) and director Paul van Leuwen (Paul Maxwell). Lt. Gorman (William Hope), however, is referred to as 'Scott' rather than 'William'. Cpl. C. Dietrich was planned to be 'Cynthia' (inspired by her actress Cynthia Dale Scott), but the actress chose 'Carla' because Scott, like Dietrich, is of German origin. As revealed in an additional scene in the Special Edition, Cpl. Hicks's (Michael Biehn) first name is not 'Michael' but 'Dwayne', and Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) first name is not 'Sigourney' but 'Ellen'. The latter was not an invention of writer/director James Cameron; when Alien (1979) writer/producer Walter Hill needed a first name for the ID cards in that film, he used his mother's middle name as Ripley's first name.
- #298
According to the cast, every actress who auditioned for a Marine role read Vasquez's lines, the tough female soldier, while all the actors read Hudson's lines, because these two characters had the most and the best dialogue. Jenette Goldstein and Cynthia Dale Scott stated that while they read for the role of Vasquez, they were also considered for other roles (possibly Ferro), because bodybuilder Rachel McLish had already been cast as Vasquez and was taking acting lessons. McLish later left the project because she demanded that Vasquez never swear (it was against her religious beliefs). Director James Cameron later recalled being impressed by Goldstein and, while convincing the studio to give Goldstein the role of Vasquez, wrote Dietrich, a new role, specifically for Scott.
- #299
- #300
James Remar was fired after being caught in possession of drugs. This incident damaged his relationship with producer Walter Hill, with whom he had worked on The Warriors (1979), The Long Riders (1980) and 48 Hrs. (1982). Hill was the producer of Aliens and had gotten Remar an audition. Nine years passed before the two worked together again on Wild Bill (1995).
- #301
When Bill Paxton auditioned for the role of Hudson, he was simultaneously set to appear in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985). Paxton states that he turned down that role, which was Zed, because he would also have to appear in future sequels. The role of Zed eventually went to Bobcat Goldthwait.
- #302
Stephen Lang auditioned for the roles of Carter Burke and Corporal Dwayne Hicks. Hicks was ultimately played by Michael Biehn. Lang later played the villain Miles Quaritch in Avatar (2009), also directed by James Cameron. The role of Quaritch had actually been considered for Biehn, but because Sigourney Weaver was already in the cast, they wanted to avoid Avatar looking like an 'Aliens reunion'.
- #303
Contrary to popular belief, Hudson's line about thinking the word 'alien' meant 'illegal immigrant' was not improvised. According to an interview with Jenette Goldstein, Goldstein was living in England at the time and, when she heard the film's title, thought it was about immigrants (in England, immigrants are called 'resident alien'). However, this line was already in the finished script before Goldstein was cast.
- #304
Because he did not have a natural coolness, Daniel Kash went to his audition for the role of Pvt. Spunkmeyer wearing a very cool coat. When he encountered Al Matthews, an extremely cool former Marine, in the audition room, he thought he was in trouble. However, director James Cameron approached Kash and told him the role was his, asking for his cool coat in return; Kash gladly gave him the coat.
- #305
- #306
Daniel Kash's final lines as Spunkmeyer ('One second, there's something... I'm in. The ramp is closing') were not spoken by the actor himself. Kash was asked to record additional dialogue in Los Angeles during post-production, but he was unavailable because he was in a play in Nova Scotia. An unknown actor voiced the lines (Kash noted that it had a New York accent, which he does not have).
- #307
Bill Paxton was allowed to improvise the insults he hurls at the Aliens in his final scene, but none of his original dialogue could be used because of the background noise. When he was called in to re-record his lines during post-production, the sound department and even Paxton himself had great difficulty understanding what he had said. They had to cut it short and make guesses to fill in the gaps.
- #308
When James Cameron went to write the screenplay, he was told that Sigourney Weaver was fully committed to the role of Ripley. Cameron wrote the script accordingly, unaware that no such agreement had been made with the actress. Cameron joked, "That's why she got her first big payday as an actress." He also noted that she may have been the first actress to receive $1 million for a film role, though this is debatable since Elizabeth Taylor received $1 million plus a share of the box office for Cleopatra (1963).
- #309
- #310
William Hope (Gorman) voiced Dr. Groves in the 2010 video game Aliens vs. Predator (2010) and Marshall Waits in Alien: Isolation (2014) (coincidentally, Gorman's incompetence shares traits with the character of Waits). He also voiced Predator characters in the games Aliens vs. Predator 2 (2001) and CR: Alien vs. Predator (2007). He recorded voice work for the character T. Shannon for Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013), but the character did not appear in the final game.
- #311
Jonesy was played by a cat named Boris, who belonged to the family of British actress and stand-up comedian Sooz Kempner when she was a child. According to Kempner, Boris was chosen for his ability to hiss in front of the camera, and it did not take much effort to achieve this. To do it, another cat was placed inside a cat carrier covered with a blanket. When the blanket was pulled away, Boris immediately began to hiss.
- #312
- #313
- #314
- #315
- #316
- #317
James Cameron was so impressed by Linda Hamilton's performance in Terminator 2: Judgment Day that he campaigned for her to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, but he failed. In this film, Sigourney Weaver was nominated in the same category but lost to Marlee Matlin. Interestingly, Weaver's character is referred to as "Ellen Ripley" in Mr. Destiny (1990); Hamilton's character was also Ellen Ripley.
- #318
Sigourney Weaver admitted that receiving an Oscar nomination for this film "surprised" her, because she noted that the Academy rarely recognizes the science fiction, horror and action genres. She added: "It was very unheard of – and still is. But I knew that Cameron made the character and the story structure meaningful for people, so whatever the genre, I was just happy to be embraced by the Academy for the story alone."
- #319
- #320
- #321
- #322
According to Lance Henriksen, Bishop was almost scarier than the creatures: "I thought it would be good if Bishop had two pupils in his eyes when he was alerted to something, and I had contact lenses made. When Jim saw the daily footage, he said, 'God, we can't use this. You're scarier than the creature!'"
- #323
- #324
- #325
Speaking about Goldstein's casting as Vasquez, Cameron acknowledged the controversy and said: "If we did this today, we'd be crucified." He explained that Goldstein was then a member of the British actors' union Equity, and that shooting in England largely meant casting from that pool. He also recalled the physical transformation the role required: "Here comes this fair-skinned, freckled, blue-eyed Jewish girl from Beverly Hills. Yes, this is Vasquez – so fair!... A little body makeup, brown contacts, dye your hair black, you'll be great!"
- #326
The special version comes with seventeen minutes of additional scenes: Ripley talking with Burke about her daughter, her demotion, Newt's family discovering the abandoned alien ship on LV-426, a tour of the Sulaco, Hudson boasting about his weapons, Ripley's hesitation before entering the colony, the robot sentry guns repelling two Alien assaults, the marines theorizing about an Alien leader, and Hicks and Ripley sharing their first names. It also includes a scene of a child riding a Bigwheel bicycle, which also appears in James Cameron's The Terminator.
- #327
James Cameron had difficulty winning the trust of the British crew, most of whom had worked on the first film. Although The Terminator had been a box-office success in the US, it had failed in the UK. Cameron arranged screenings of Terminator on set, but most crew members ignored the invitation.
- #328
The set was the scene of great hostility between the British crew and Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. The crew saw Cameron as inexperienced and unworthy of Scott's legacy, and looked down on Hurd as well. Cameron and Hurd, in turn, found the crew lazy and disrespectful. After filming, Cameron said he would never return to Pinewood, and indeed he did not; however, he later hired Lamont on True Lies and Titanic. Ironically, Ridley Scott had had a similar experience on Blade Runner.
- #329
- #330
Sigourney Weaver was initially reluctant to reprise the role of Ripley; she feared a bad sequel would damage Alien's legacy. However, James Cameron's script, particularly its focus on Ripley and the mother-daughter bond with Newt, impressed her and she accepted. Because of a scene Cameron cut (in which Burke brings news of her daughter's death), she could not fully enjoy the film at the gala; that scene was restored in the Special Version.
- #331
Cameron had built the script around Ripley and was horrified to learn that Weaver had not yet been contacted. Weaver showed interest, but the studio objected to her salary demands. Cameron said they would withdraw from the project if there was no deal by the time they returned from their honeymoon. Bluffing, he told Schwarzenegger's manager that he planned to write Ripley out of the script; the information reached Weaver's representative and the deal was signed quickly. Cameron said that if his bluff had failed, the film would have been cancelled.
- #332
In the original script, while searching for Newt, Ripley encounters a cocooned Burke; Burke asks for help, and Ripley gives him a live grenade. The scene was shot but Cameron disliked it and cut it; he added the reactor explosion to conceal Burke's death. The scene was not included in the Special Version either; its existence was known for years from a single frame, until it was released on Blu-Ray.
- #333
Sigourney Weaver was paid 1 million dollars for the role of Ripley; this was 30 times her salary on the first film, and she also had a share of the profits. Her salary increased in later films: 5.5 million for Alien³ and 11 million dollars for Alien: Resurrection, although the films became less profitable.
- #334
Cameron based his script on a story he wrote in 1981 titled 'E.T.', but upon hearing about Spielberg's E.T., he changed the title first to 'Protein', then to 'Mother'. The story concerned a genetically engineered female hybrid on Venus; the term 'xenomorph' originated there. In the end, Ripley fought the hybrid protecting its offspring in a power loader. The Marines were added at the request of Giler and Hill. Cameron's PTSD research for Rambo II helped with Ripley's story arc. The idea of a toxic planetary atmosphere was reused in Avatar.
- #335
One of the deleted scenes reveals that Ripley had a daughter named Amanda who died of cancer at the age of 66. Amanda is the protagonist of the video game Alien: Isolation; the events take place 15 years after the first film. While investigating her mother's fate, Amanda encounters a Xenomorph infestation on the Sevastopol station; this infestation began when the salvage ship that found the Nostromo's flight recorder picked up the Engineer signal.
- #336
- #337
- #338
Cameron recalls his experience with the producers Giler and Hill as difficult. They gave him a vague premise: Ripley returning to the planet with soldiers. Cameron figured out the rest himself and wrote a 90-page script. Giler became furious and said, 'You'll never work in this town again!' Cameron was later disappointed to learn that Giler and Hill had credited themselves as the third writer; this was similar to what Dan O'Bannon experienced on Alien.
- #339
- #340
- #341
Alien (1979) had achieved an unexpected box office success, but 20th Century Fox was not very keen on a sequel. At the time, the prevailing belief was that sequels cost twice as much and earned half as much. Producers David Giler and Walter Hill moved early with the support of Fox production chief Alan Ladd Jr., who had approved the original. However, when Ladd left the company to found his own production company, his replacement Norman Levy did not believe in the project at all. Moreover, the producers were in litigation with Fox over Alien's profits. The studio was not open to ideas until the lawsuit was settled in 1983 and there was a management change at Fox in 1984. Development executive Larry Wilson suggested James Cameron as screenwriter; Cameron wrote the first draft. Although some executives thought the draft was 'horror from start to finish and needed character development', the newly appointed studio president Lawrence Gordon liked it very much, immediately greenlit it, and gave Cameron time to develop the script while he directed The Terminator (1984).
- #342
A scene set in the colony before the alien outbreak (at about the 16th minute, only in the long version) was removed from the final cut and added back in the Special Edition. A Weyland-Yutani employee asks why the Company wants them to check some remote coordinates on the planet; his superior says that getting an answer takes weeks and the answer is always 'Don't ask'. Elements of this scene later appeared in other James Cameron projects: in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), the scene in which Miles Dyson is introduced at Cyberdyne follows the same pace and tone; an employee stops a superior, they walk together, they talk about their employer's mysterious behavior, and it ends with the line '...don't ask'. The character name 'Lydecker' was used in Dark Angel (2000).
- #343
- #344
- #345
James Cameron said that while making the film he knew nothing about how big corporations work, so he portrayed them as a large, shadowy entity. However, he later admitted that the character Burke (Paul Reiser) was not very realistic: He had written him as a ruthless schemer, but realized that most corporate men are 'spineless and Burke would not take proactive risks for greed'. Reiser, on the other hand, described Burke as 'misunderstood'; a man who does not intend to do bad things but feels compelled to do so to protect the Company's interests.
- #346
Dan O'Bannon had changed the title of the previous film's screenplay from 'Star Beast' to Alien (1979) because he had noticed how often the word 'alien' was used. James Cameron changed the title of his screenplay from 'Alien II' to 'Aliens' for the same reason. It is even said that to convince the studio he wrote 'Aliens' as 'Alien$' and emphasized its box office potential. He liked it so much that if anyone on set called the film 'Alien II', he would correct them forcefully.
- #347
- #348
- #349
- #350
James Cameron said: 'Ridley made the first film and with that single film he inspired an entire generation of directors and science fiction fans. There were many films derived from it, including my Aliens. I did this as a fan; I wanted to honor his film but also to say what I wanted to say. After that I take no responsibility.'
- #351
Tensions rose between director James Cameron and the British crew during the shoot. Cameron said, 'I wasn't a very experienced filmmaker at the time; this was only my second film' (ignoring Piranha II: The Spawning (1982)). Gale Anne Hurd and Stan Winston recall that it was a mock rebellion and that many crew members did not think Cameron had the talent or experience to make a sequel to Sir Ridley Scott's beloved Alien (1979). The Terminator (1984) had barely been seen in the United Kingdom, and Pinewood Studios' own contracted crew had union rights such as tea breaks and fixed working hours that Cameron and Hurd were not used to. Hurd recounts that the 'clock-punchers' disrupted the shooting pace with tea breaks or by leaving before setups were finished. In one instance, the set had been smoked for an hour to reach the desired smoke level, and just as Cameron wanted to shoot, a tea lady came in and all the smoke escaped through the open door. Hurd and Winston stated that the leader of this 'rebellion' was first assistant director Derek Cracknell, who considered himself better suited to direct the film than Cameron. On the day Cracknell was fired, a mass walkout was nearly staged; this could have ended Cameron's and Hurd's careers because of the money Fox had spent on the production. However, after actress Sigourney Weaver brokered a truce, Cameron and Hurd made more of an effort to get along with the British crew and respect their work routines.
- #352
Producing the film in Hollywood could have cost 35 million dollars, and 20th Century Fox was not willing to spend that amount. Producing the film in the United Kingdom was not for sentimental reasons but mostly a budgetary decision: financial incentives and a favorable exchange rate reduced costs by 20 million dollars.
- #353
James Cameron began his career doing special effects for Roger Corman (Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)). Years earlier, Corman had directed The Little Shop of Horrors (1960); it was later made as a musical (Little Shop of Horrors (1986)), also filmed at Pinewood Studios at the same time as this film. That film has a scene in which Orin Scrivello (Steve Martin) rips off a girl's doll's head. In Aliens, Newt (Carrie Henn) carries a severed doll's head.
- #354
In 1992, Kenner approached 20th Century Fox to produce a toy line and a related animated series for this film. Fox created a pilot episode for a series called 'Operation: Aliens', but shelved it before broadcast, probably because of the disappointing reception of Alien³ (1992) and the difficulty of adapting an R-rated series into a children's program. The Kenner toys were released anyway. The pilot episode never surfaced, but animation frames leaked online.
- #355
Sigourney Weaver was shooting One Woman or Two (1985) when she received the screenplay for this film. She recalled: 'A script was sent to me: Aliens, from James Cameron. It was magnificent. It was the best script I had ever read. I was fascinated by the humor, the humanity and the action.'
- #356
- #357
- #358
- #359
(Around the 29th minute) Inside the APV as it prepares for battle, Vasquez's (Jenette Goldstein) armor has 'El riesgo siempre vive!' written on it in white. A literal translation from Spanish means 'Risk always lives!'; although it has been claimed to be a variant of the Ancient Roman slogan 'Fortune favors the brave,' Goldstein has stated that it is a more sarcastic Latin saying and means 'Risk is always there' or 'You can't get out alive.'
- #360
(Around the 22nd minute) Bishop's statement that he cannot harm a human or allow one to come to harm is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics, particularly the First Law ('A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm'). (Second Law: 'A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law'; Third Law: 'A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.') Asimov later added a 'Zeroth Law': 'A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.'
- #361
The film is set in the year 2179. This is derived from Burke's message to the colony dated 6/12/79. The century is not specified, but the universe guide 'Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual,' published in 1995, places both Alien (1979) and this film in the 22nd century. The events of Alien (1979) have been retroactively dated to 2122, 57 years before Aliens.
- #362
(Around the 23rd minute) During the briefing, the marines ask whether it will be 'a stand-up fight or another bug hunt.' When they learn that a 'xenomorph' may be involved, they confirm that it is the latter. What 'bug hunt' means is never explained in the film; the only clues are the 'Bug Stomper' and 'We Endanger Species' decals on the dropship, implying that it is a form of pest control. In the second draft of William Gibson's unused Alien³ (1992) screenplay, it is explained that the Colonial Marines are often sent to destroy 'unnecessary species' to make planets safe and habitable. These 'bugs' are implied to be low-level parasitic alien life forms, as opposed to the clearly more complex and intelligent Aliens.
- #363
(Around the 22nd minute) In the shooting script, the synthetic Ash from the previous film was referred to as 'Cyberdyne Systems 120-A/2,' a clear reference to the Cyberdyne Systems 101 Terminator from James Cameron's previous film The Terminator (1984). In the film, it was changed to Hyperdine System 120-A2.
- #364
The company's name, 'Weyland Yutani,' had appeared in Alien (1979) only on a beer can (spelled Weylan-Yutani). According to rumor, the name was taken from former neighbors of Alien director Sir Ridley Scott — he hated them, so he decided to 'dedicate' the name of the 'evil company' to them. In reality, the name was created by conceptual designer Ron Cobb to imply a British-Japanese company carving out a corner of the spacecraft market. By his own account, he would have liked to use 'Leyland-Toyota' but could not, so he changed one letter in Leyland and added the Japanese name of his own neighbor (not Scott's).
- #365
(Around the 16th minute, extended version only) Aside from a very minor reference in Alien (1979), the special edition of this film reveals the 'Company's' name as Weyland-Yutani for the first time. The name is clearly visible on various pieces of equipment and walls in the colony in the scene before the Alien outbreak, and in the slogan 'Building better worlds,' which Burke later refers to.
- #366
(Around the 42nd minute) The facehuggers kept by the colonists (both live specimens and dead ones) were held in water-filled jars, so that if they were injured in any way and began leaking acid, the acid would immediately be diluted by the surrounding water, thus preventing the jar from rupturing and the creature from escaping (the jar itself may also have been made of acid-resistant glass). While Bishop explains that a facehugger's acid blood becomes inert when it dies, the original screenplay of Alien had a scene in which the dead facehugger immediately began to decompose and leak copious amounts of acid everywhere. This led to a panicked rush to eject the facehugger's remains from the ship before they ate through the Nostromo's hull. In terms of acid exposure, dead aliens were initially designed to be more dangerous than living ones.
- #367
(Around 1 hour 50 minutes) When Ripley drops the flare, the 'Reebok' logo on her shoe is clearly visible. This is odd given the time in which the film is set, but Reebok still sells this shoe, and its name is 'Alien Stomper.' However, the 'Reebok' logo is seen earlier (around the 28th minute) in the loading bay, when Ripley first steps into the 'Power Loader.'
- #368
- #369
- #370
Because Jay Benedict (Newt's father) was the first colonist to be impregnated by a 'facehugger', many fans theorized that he may have given birth to the Xenomorph Queen. James Cameron commented behind the scenes in Starlog magazine that a rescue team arrived after Newt's mother called for help. Some members of the team investigated the Derelict Ship, they too were impregnated, and after being brought back to the colony complex they 'gave birth' to several chestbursters. Cameron, likening them to insects, theorized that 'the first immature female to emerge from a host (possibly due to being given special nutrients) becomes a new Queen, while the males become workers or warriors.' This indicates that an initially normal sterile Alien transforms into a Queen capable of reproduction. Although this appears to contradict Alien³ (1992), in which a chestburster is identified as a Queen while still inside a human body, fans speculated that this was implanted by a 'royal facehugger' that emerged from the emergency egg the Queen left on the Sulaco after losing her egg-layer.
- #371
(Around 2 hours) The music that plays when the Alien Queen appears as Ripley and Newt wait for the elevator is a piece reused from Jerry Goldsmith's original Alien (1979) score. Thematically, the music appears at the same moment in both films: near the end, when Ripley tries to escape and suddenly encounters the Alien, and the environment around her counts down toward self-destruction (the Nostromo in Alien, the atmosphere processor in Aliens). Another reused piece of music is heard when Ripley reaches the platform and is shocked to learn that Bishop has left with the dropship; in Alien, it was heard as Parker and Lambert are threatened and killed by the Alien.
- #372
(Around 1 hour 40 minutes) Hudson (Bill Paxton) is last seen being dragged away by an Alien warrior, so it is assumed that he was either killed by the Aliens or died in the nuclear explosion when the atmosphere processor went critical. However, the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013) gives him a different (non-canon) fate: the colony complex, though heavily damaged by the explosion, is still standing, and Hudson's body is found in the sewer, cocooned to the wall with a hole in his chest; he was clearly killed when a Chestburster emerged from him.
- #373
James Cameron wrote the film as an allegory for American involvement in the Vietnam War; the marines represented American conservative hawks, while the xenomorphs (aliens) represented the Vietnamese. In an interview with Screenprism, Cameron said, 'Their training and technology are unsuitable for certain situations, and this can be likened to superior American firepower being unable to conquer the invisible enemy in Vietnam: too much firepower and too little wisdom, and it didn't work.' Cameron also likened Ripley to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, who were among the first to inexplicably return to the war zone despite the horrors they had witnessed.
- #374
One question the film does not answer is whether the Aliens are visible on infrared binoculars. According to the novelization, they normally are. However, because of the heat from the cooling exchangers and hot pipes in the atmosphere processor, the environment is so hot that it makes the creatures undetectable.
- #375
The planet is called LV-426 in the film, but in the script it was less formally called 'Acheron', as it also was in the Alien (1979) script. In Greek mythology, Acheron is the 'river of woe', one of the five rivers of the Underworld (the realm of the dead). Acheron forms the boundary between the upper and lower worlds, and the souls of the dead must cross it to reach the Underworld. James Cameron devised the designation LV-426 because it sounded like a navigation reference point. Fans have since theorized that LV could mean 'life-supporting', meaning the planet is at a suitable distance from a nearby star to sustain life, and that the designation '426' simply means it is the 426th life-supporting planet identified.
- #376
- #377
- #378
People wonder why Ripley doesn't mention Special Order 937 during the inquiry at the beginning of the film. Issued by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to Science Officer Ash aboard the USCSS Nostromo, this order was to protect the Xenomorph specimen the Nostromo encountered and bring it back alive for analysis; the entire crew of the Nostromo was considered expendable. Ripley thus discovered at the end of Alien (1979) that the company had sent her on a suicide mission under false pretenses to retrieve the Alien. However, when the company questions her after her return and essentially blames her for all the deaths and the destruction of the ship, she does not mention Special Order 937 or remind them of how they basically sacrificed several human lives on an illegal suicide mission. It is easy to overlook, but Ripley does in fact briefly allude to the order: in response to the statement that the Nostromo landed on LV-426 'for unknown reasons,' she says, 'We landed there *on company orders* to get this thing, which destroyed my crew and your expensive ship.' The company representatives, however, dodge the implication by questioning Ripley's reasoning, stating that there is no evidence the creature was aboard, and thus quickly dispelling the idea that she ever saw any secret order to obtain one in the first place. Apparently, the flight recorder cannot support any detail of the order, so the company can easily deny it was ever given (and even if it was, the officials at the time are long gone and can no longer be held responsible). So Ripley is forced to team up again with the company, which issues another Special Order 937 through the unethical executive Burke.
- #379
The blu-ray release of the Alien Quadrilogy box set (the first four films) has an unusual feature: when you take the Blu-ray out of your player, it leaves a 'Weyland-Yutani: Building Better Worlds' advertisement on the TV screen. (When you insert and remove another disc, your screen returns to normal.) The advertisements are in different colors for each film.
- #380
The film owes a great deal to Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel 'Starship Troopers,' of which James Cameron is a fan. In this novel, Earth's army is sent to fight an alien species called the 'Pseudo-Arachnids' (or 'Bugs') from the planet Klendathu, which has multiple castes like ants or termites (workers, warriors, brains and queens). Ships can cover dozens of light years in weeks. Earth's army consists of both male and female soldiers. During the orientation in Aliens, Hudson's question 'Is this a bug hunt?' is quoted from the novel. The power loader in Aliens was based on the combat exoskeletons in the book. The use of the term 'drop' also comes from Starship Troopers. Cameron told all the actors playing marines in Aliens to read the novel to understand their characters' background and dynamic.
- #381
- #382
- #383
- #384
(Around the 21st minute) The knife trick performed by Bishop (Lance Henriksen) is a tribute to Dark Star (1974), in which Boiler (Cal Kuniholm) performed a similar knife trick. Dark Star was co-written by and starred Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the story and screenplay of the original Alien (1979).
- #385
(Around the 23rd minute) At the time of the film's release, the Alien species had no official name. The word 'xenomorph' used by Gorman was not a name but merely a generic term for 'unknown/alien life form' (from the Greek 'xeno-' meaning foreign/alien and '-morph' meaning shape or form), much like the military's use of terms such as 'unidentified flying object' (UFO) or 'bogey' for unknown objects. This caused some confusion among fans, who did not understand how anyone other than Ripley could know the name of a species no one else had seen. In an interesting irony, the term 'Xenomorph' was so widely accepted by the fan base that it was adopted as the species' semi-official name (aside from the more casual 'Alien'). The Alien was later retroactively named 'Xenomorph XX121' in James A. Moore's 2014 novel 'Alien: Sea of Sorrows' and S. D. Perry's 'Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report,' and after fans began to adopt this naming, the term was officially canonized in Alien: Romulus (2024).
- #386
- #387
- #388
- #389
(Around the 13th minute) As Carter Burke and Marine Lieutenant Gorman try to persuade Ripley to return to LV-426, he refers to the Colonial Marines as 'really tough men'. 'Tough 'Ombres' is the name of the US Army's 90th Infantry Division, which fought in World Wars I and II. This reference is either an incredible coincidence or incredibly sly foreshadowing by the writers. During World War II, the 90th Infantry Division suffered one of the highest casualty rates among US Army divisions, with roughly 20,000 soldiers killed, wounded, captured or missing. One of the biggest factors contributing to the division's high casualty rate was poorly trained leadership. By referring to the Marines as 'really tough men', Burke may be foreshadowing the outcome of the Marines' first encounter with the alien creatures and highlighting Lieutenant Gorman's lack of experience.
- #390
(Around the 24th minute) During the briefing, Private Vasquez grows impatient with Ripley's account of the aliens and says, 'All I need to know is where they are.' Though probably unintentional, it references an old saying: 'Spartans do not ask how many the enemy are, only where they are.'
- #391
- #392
(Around the 41st minute) Vasquez calls Gorman 'pendejo' in Spanish. Contrary to popular belief, it does not mean 'asshole' in English; it is milder, not even considered a swear word. It roughly means 'idiot' or 'birdbrain' or something similar. In Spanish, the word for 'asshole' is 'cabrón'.
- #393
(Around the 32nd minute) Hicks falls asleep during the descent. This is a clear nod to Mercury astronaut Major Gordon Cooper, the last American to fly alone in space and the one who made the longest solo flight. Cooper was so relaxed that he fell asleep in his capsule during the pre-launch countdown and had to be woken up so the launch could proceed.
- #394
(Around the 1st minute) In Alien (1979), H.R. Giger initially intended the openings atop the alien eggs to resemble a human vulva, but the explicitly sexual aspects of the design were quickly removed due to censorship concerns. He later designed the opening of the Derelict Ship that Dallas, Lambert and Ash pass through in a faintly vulvar shape. Giger's distinctly vaginal vision of the aliens' origin may have carried over into the sequel in some way: the letter 'I' in the film's title transforms into an oval shape faintly resembling a vulva.
Behind the Scenes (261)
- #395
the Alien horde is represented by the Warriors -- which adhered to the originally established anatomy for the creature; the filmmakers were creatively constrained by the fact it had been shown in its entirety in the climax of the first film. Winston elaborated: "I loved Alien, it was probably my favourite horror movie of the decade. But if there was anything that I was disappointed in, it was at the very end when the Alien gets blown out of the ship and you realize at last that what you've been waiting to see all this time is simply a man in a suit -- a great suit, but a suit nonetheless. I found that very disheartening in the movie, and even more disheartening going into Aliens knowing that millions of people had seen this thing and therefore knew exactly what the Alien looked like. Our hands were tied -- we had to be true to the original." For that very reason, the artists were sent one of the original Alien suits to their Studio for reference purposes. Howard Berger, part of the crew, recalled: "we pulled this thing out of a crate, and it was unbelievable to see how it had been constructed. It had black-painted, hard macaroni pieces glued all over it to give it texture, with black-painted bottle caps at the waist; and the feet were just black Converse tennis shoes, covered with a slip-latex skin! When we got this thing out, put it on a mannequin, and saw it in broad daylight, it was amazing to realize what Ridley Scott had gotten away with, just by using slime and careful lighting and the right camera angles." Even using the suit as their fundamental reference, the filmmakers allowed themselves cosmetic changes to the Alien anatomy. The most prominent example was the removal of the Alien's signature translucent dome on its head, for both aesthetic and practical reasons. Cameron recalled in a Cinefex interview: "on the original Alien, there was a translucent cowl covering the whole top of the head that looked kind of like a porpoise back. We planned to do the same thing with ours, and to that end Stan had Tom Woodruff sculpt up a ribbed, bone-like understructure that would fit underneath and be slightly visible through the cowl. When it was finished, they gave it a real nice paint job and I took a look at and said, 'hey, this looks much more interesting the way it is.' So we ditched the cowl and decided that this was just another generation of Aliens -- slightly mutated." A later explanation -- initially suggested by David R. Larson on an issue of Starlog, and approved by Cameron -- portrays the differences as results of an aging process. From a practical standpoint, the frenetic actions that were to be performed by the Alien suits represented a constant danger for the domes to receive consistent damage. "Jim just wanted to remove [the dome]," Gillis said, "thought it would be a hassle. He was afraid of it cracking or it having to be replaced -- we'd have to cut and switch the dome." The design of the ridges was actually based on the patterns that Giger had painted on the sides of the original Alien's underdome structure. The removal of the dome implied that the Alien's skull would be exposed; to maintain what Winston called "the Alien's eyeless menace," the human-like skull portion was smoothed over and painted with darker tones. Traces of it are still present, in the form of small indentations in the front of the Alien's head -- detectable upon close inspection. Other changes were strictly made to distance the appearance of the Aliens from "the man in a costume look of the original." Those include the Aliens' hands, whose fingers were greatly elongated. "We've redesigned the hands so that they are longer than original," Winston said, "the fingers are a little bit longer -- again, we took certain licenses to get away from the human look of a hand in a glove; and then we've developed articulated mechanical hands for close-ups, which do things that a person's hand in a glove couldn't do!" Interestingly enough, the sixth digit (corresponding to the double opposable thumb) was removed. The first digit of the Aliens' feet was also modified and designed to grow at an angle, a trait included for them to convincingly climb walls. The rest of the changes amounted to simple cosmetic modifications. Winston explained: "It was all quite subtle. Details that were obviously tacked onto the first one -- little hoses and things -- we worked at in a sculptural way so that the organic and inorganic elements blended together better. It's nothing you could ever detect on film -- just the kind of thing you do to keep from getting bored duplicating exactly what someone else has already done."
- #396
Once James Cameron defined the final appearance of the Queen, the director worked with Winston to further elaborate the structure of the full-size animatronic, and whether or not it could be actually brought to the screen. A test was made, with a 'garbage bag' mock-up Alien Queen. Winston recalled: "once we came up with a design and an idea of how we were going to get it to work, we rented a crane and built a quick little body plate setup out of wood that would hold two stuntmen. Then we made a rough mock-up of the Queen using black foam-core and plastic trash bags and suspended our stuntmen inside it. For the big arms, we used ski pole extensions -- which were lightweight, but very strong -- and attached them to some creature hands I had developed for another project. Each stuntman would hold one with his arm stretched out straight so that from his shoulder to his fist would be the Queen's upper arm and from his fist to the end of the pole would be her forearm. For the smaller arms in front, the guys were able to use their own arms without any extensions. We set this thing up out in our parking lot to see if it was going to work -- and it did. There was still a lot of fine-tuning to be done, but the basic concept was good."
- #397
Daniel Kash's final lines in the movie as Spunkmeyer ("Hold on a second, there's something... I'm in. Ramp closing") weren't done by the actor himself. Kash was asked to do additional dialogue recording in LA during post-production, but he wasn't available as he was doing a play in Nova Scotia. An unknown actor provided the lines (as Kash noted a New York accent that he doesn't have).
- #398
- #399
Director James Cameron has always stated that the Queen vs Ripley Power Loader battle was done with the best combination of live-action animatronic special effects work and miniature shots they could produce at the time, but this hasn't stopped him from speculating how the scene would have turned out if computer-generated imagery (CGI) had been available at the time. He concluded that the fight would definitely be more dynamic, with both the machine and the Queen being more mobile and jumping on top of one another. However, he also admitted that in order to not reveal the behind-the-scenes techniques used in traditional effects, they had to resort to tight, brief shots, which makes the fight much more tense and atmospheric. Cameron also gives full credit to Sigourney Weaver for selling the effect, saying that the scene would never have worked if not for her natural reactions to the monster.
- #400
James Cameron allegedly "showed no mercy" to the small-scale Queen puppet during filming, according to Notaro: "during our next shot, we had two puppeteers literally ramming the puppet into the sliding doors as hard as they could -- over and over again. Then, after about ten takes, Jim would say, 'here's how I want you to do it.' And he'd it three times harder than anybody else had. Luckily, the Queen turned out to be very durable. We did have some slippages in the mechanisms, but that was to be expected since they had been built to fit into a very thin, small area and they were being abused very badly. I was constantly adjusting things to keep it operating correctly. We also had to keep it looking good because we might do a scene one day where she was completely battered and the next day do a scene where she had to look brand new. There was constant maintenance going on."
- #401
Expectedly, both the miniature and full-scale Queen proved to be very complex to film, although the anatomy of the Mother creature allowed more screen exposure than the Warriors. Some of the Queen sequences were shot at a quicker speed, at times with 12 to 16 frames per second. "In photographing the Warriors," Cameron explained, "we tried to be circumspect so as not to make them look like men in suits. That was always a concern. With the Queen, however, we felt sure that it would hold up because it clearly isn't a person. It has extra limbs and spines and other features that defy normal human geometry, and we, therefore, knew we could show it longer without blowing the game. All we had to do was make it look nonmechanical -- which proved not to be a major problem, given Stan Winston's handiwork and my own tendency to shoot action scenes in very quick cuts."
- #402
- #403
A more robust, stunt version of the Queen puppet was built by Graham High, Verner Gresty, and Steve Onions. "Jim realised it was a bit precious to risk on the egg sac sequence," High said, "and took too many operators to get a smooth performance, so Stan asked me to build another more robust cable controlled [version]." The stunt Queen, supposedly simpler, actually featured a total of 70 control cables. It was used to shoot scenes where extensive articulation was not required. High and his crew also built a third stunt puppet, but it was never actually used for shooting. Both miniature versions of the Queen seen in the film featured an additional finger in the inner arms -- but they were filmed so that it would be never shown onscreen, keeping consistency with the footage of the full-size creature. Following Cameron's instructions, the Queen was animated with quick and agile movements. Beswick said: "one of Jim Cameron's comments when he saw our dinosaur from My Science Project was that the Alien Queen would have to move very fast -- almost like a blur. The dinosaur had to move very slowly, which was actually more difficult. It's really much easier to get smooth movement from something that's moving quickly than it is from something that's moving slowly. I think Jim got the effect he wanted from the Alien Queen -- quick, yet fluid action."
- #404
The original Alien suits were rather detailed but were impractical: they could not perform the fast and agile movements that Ridley Scott wanted to portray. In order to avoid the same issues met by the filmmakers of Alien, Cameron and Winston decided to modify the structure of the suits with an emphasis on movement rather than detail. "I thought that quick, blurring, lizard-like, or insect-like leap was more important than the physical, sculptural design of the suit," Cameron said, "and I think that that's a mistake that a lot of make-up and prosthetics people make when they're dealing with this sort of thing is that they lavish all their attention on the sculptural detail the surface texture, etc. and they fail to realize that people need very few pixels of information to identify a human figure, and most of that identification is through motion. The way we walk is so ingrained in us mentally that you can see it just like that; so what we did was we actually redesigned the suit and made it simpler and less sophisticated and basically freed it so that it was much more flexible." Winston explained further: "what Jim wanted were movements that were sporadic and odd and strange, so that even though they were men in suits, they didn't move like men in suits. So the big thing for us was to figure out a way to make these guys move and act in ways that were unlike a human -- hanging from ceilings, hanging from wall to wall, doing insect-like moves and so on. The Alien in the first film could never have done these things because it was a full rubber suit and was very difficult to move around in. To avoid that problem, we had to come up with an alternative design that allowed for great freedom of movement. We did that by eliminating the rubber suit aspect altogether and using instead black leotards with lightweight foam pieces attached to them. If you were to look at them hanging on a rack, you'd think, 'my God, those are just black leotards with pieces of stuff on them.' But when you see them in the film and they're wet and they're slimy, you can't tell the difference at all between ours and the original -- and ours had complete freedom of movement." The lighting and angles of the film also aided in the objective.
- #405
Most of the movie was filmed under very bluish light to give it a strange and "alien" feel. The colors of the Marines' camouflage BDUs and the Humbrol "Brown Bess" used on the Assault Rifles were all chosen specifically to work with the blue set lighting. As a result, both look very different under natural light than they did on screen.
- #406
The M-56 smart guns and the sentry guns built for the movie were designed around German MG 42 machine guns (most recognizable on the smart guns where the MG 42's characteristic recoil booster muzzle is clearly visible). The gun is mounted on a heavily modified steadicam harness - the MG 42 alone (without the additional cosmetic dressing and ammunition) weighs in at about 25 pounds.
- #407
(at around 1h) To create the effect of the chestburster bursting out of the female colonist's body, actress Barbara Coles wore a prosthetic chest piece made of foam through which the chestburster model emerged. A replica dummy of Barbara Coles was then used for shots where the Marines incinerated her body with the chestburster.
- #408
Unlike the slow-moving horror of the original Alien (1979) creature as established by Sir Ridley Scott, director James Cameron created a film in which the xenomorphs would be fast, active and dynamic. To make the cable-actuated Xenomorph puppets more maneuverable, the Stan Winston Studios crew loaded the cables and controllers onto a wagon so they could quickly reposition the cable-controlled Alien to perform wherever Cameron wanted it to. To achieve the range of action and mobility required by Cameron's vision, the SWS team created many different versions of the Aliens depending on whatever the shot called for: hero insert puppets with articulated upper torso, mechanical lips, tongue and jaw for closeups; lightweight black "Alien" leotards covered in polyfoam for stunt performers to wear in action shots; and poseable alien warrior figures for blowing up, setting on fire, running over and stunts deemed too dangerous for stuntmen to perform.
- #409
- #410
The Queen is introduced in the Egg chamber, which was built both as a miniature set and as a full-scale portion of the environment. The scene, in fact, employed a combination of the full-scale Queen and the 1:4th scale, stunt puppet built by High and his crew. In this ambience, the Mother creature is secured in position by extensions of hive material, and is still attached to her Egg sac which was built both as a partial, featureless extension of the full-size puppet, and as an animatronic extension of the 1:4th scale puppet. The miniature Egg sac was also filled with miniature Eggs, KY Jelly, and egg yolk. A miniature puppet of the Queen's ovipositor was also built. All of the components of both versions of the Egg sac were cast in translucent foam latex. Dennis Skotak recalled: "it was a very difficult environment to work in, and as usual, Jim was very specific about how everything had to be. The egg sac had to operate in a certain manner, the eggs had to move in just such a way and the ovipositor had to deposit an egg precisely and with just the right amount of goo. To create a breathing effect, we had wood poles on the sac leading away from the camera and wires to move the Eggs inside. Then, to get the ovipositor to work, someone had to reach way over through an opening in the side of the set, slide his hand into the Egg sac from the rear and guide the Egg out. One of the biggest problems was that there was so much slime in there that we'd get an Egg all positioned and ready to go and it would keep popping out before we got to shoot it. So someone would have to climb back in and reposition it and it got messier and more disgusting every time. In fact, everything about that set was unpleasant. There were KY jelly and 'superslime' dribbling all over the place and it was extremely hot. We had steam rising from below and smoke and all kinds of smelly things in there even cans of freon spurting from both sides. It was like shooting in hell."
- #411
The Queen's head had a wide range of motion. Both a stunt and a hero version of it were built. "We had two slightly different versions," Winston said. "One was our major fighting head -- which was built to take abuse -- and the other was our 'hero' head which was finer tuned and lighter weight. Functionally, it was about the same as the fighting head, except that it had an extruding tongue mechanism inside and also had tilt capability. In addition to hydraulic controls, the head had cable-actuated functions as well. The face, for example, had its own movement that was independent of the head. The first time the Queen is shown, in fact -- when Ripley discovers her in the Egg chamber -- her face extrudes from the head almost like a turtle coming out of its shell. Along with the 360-degree facial movement, there were also cable-operated jaws and snarling lips."
- #412
When the Queen detaches from her Egg sac, "it wasn't possible to do that in full-size, so we were faced with the difficulty of dealing with flame in scale. Bob came up with the idea of using mirrors. One of them was placed behind the Queen and positioned in such a way to reflect a flame bar we had set up about 15 feet away. At that distance, the flames -- which were six or seven feet high -- looked quite small in the mirror. It was a good scale. In the same shot, another flame bar was positioned similarly, but in such a way that when photographed through a beam-splitter, flames would also appear to be in front of the Queen. Obviously, we could have done the same effect optically, but this method allowed us to move the camera during the shot and also introduce mechanical effects and falling debris in front of the background flames -- and do it all quite simply."
- #413
(at around 2h 5 mins) Sigourney Weaver originally intended to say her line "Get away from her, you bitch" with the last word in a lower register, but during the first delivery, she accidentally went up. Director James Cameron, who normally does two or three takes, liked it though, and didn't ask for another one. The line has become so popular with fans that they almost invariably quote it exactly like Ripley, with the tonal emphasis on the last word.
- #414
The Alien Eggs underwent cosmetic changes in proportions and animation -- with their petals splitting and moving downward for their entire length. Rick Lazzarini devised the hero animatronic used when an Egg opens. "I used a cable stand-off on polypropylene technique," he said, "to allow the petals, [or] lips to curl back and seal back up organically. The Hero Egg I worked on was used in a number of shots in the film." Winston Studio also built several background Eggs -- either closed, for Eggs with Facehuggers still inside or open, for already hatched Eggs. Small scale vacuformed eggs -- eight to ten inches in height -- were also constructed for the miniature Egg chamber set. The Facehugger's role was expanded upon compared to the first film. "In the first film, the Facehugger -- after its leap onto John Hurt's face -- appears simply as an inert form," Cameron said. "In Aliens, we changed that. Now it has the physical capability, should it miss on that first leap, to run around on its eight legs and leap again -- which made for a really interesting sequence." The design of the Monster was partially changed, with its underside inspired by Giger's paintings -- a vaginal opening with an extruding proboscis. Cameron explained: "the bits of oysters and stuff inside [the first Facehugger looked great, but I did want to see the disgusting thing that had been down the inside of Kane's throat. You never see it in the movie, so I figured we'd gross everybody out. All of Giger's designs have a really sexual undercurrent to them, and that's what horrified people about the Alien as much as anything. It worked on a kind of Freudian subconscious level, and Ridley and Giger knew that and went for that. This film was never intended to be as much of a horror film as the first one, it was working on a different thematic level, but I still wanted to be true to some of those ideas, some of those design concepts." Winston added: "we took a few artistic liberties, nothing anyone's even likely to notice. It was just one of those things. If you work on something long enough, you're bound to find things you feel can be a little bit improved. Sculpturally, I think ours was a little more organic than the first one, although the first one was brilliant. The finger appendages on ours are a little more like fingers than they were on the original. We made the knuckles a little more knuckle-like and on the tips of the fingers we actually put nails. Basically, we took that which we saw as the intent of the original design and carried it a step further. Also, we lengthened the tail by about six inches so we could do more work with it -- wrapping it around necks and getting a whip-like action out of it."
- #415
- #416
The Aliens were sculpted and constructed by Tom Woodruff, John Rosengrant, Julian Caldow, Nigel Booth, Lindsay McGowan and David Keen. Various stuntmen and dancers portrayed the Aliens in the various scenes featuring the creatures; none of them reached Bolaji Badejo's towering height, and as such the filmmakers had to resort to camera trickery. Cameron recalled: "for Alien, they went out of their way to find a very tall person to be inside the suit -- Bolaji Badejo was something like seven feet tall. We knew right off that we weren't going to be able to find ten people who were seven feet tall. On the other hand, in studying Alien we found that there was really only one shot in the entire film that shows a direct scale relationship between the creature and a human being. In all the other shots, it exists separately in the frame." In actuality, both the Alien and an actor are seen in the same shot in a number of sequences, but only one -- the Alien raising in front of Lambert -- offers a real sense of scale. Cameron continues: "we decided that rather than go for height, we'd go for people who had the right physique to be in the suits -- the thinnest people we could find that had the strength to do the kinds of movements we wanted, such as hanging on wires and crawling upside-down and that sort of thing. In the end, they averaged under six feet tall, but by putting them on footstools or doing low angles on the creatures and high angles on the people looking at them we were able to create the impression that the Warriors were much taller than they actually were." The Aliens' tails were at times puppeteered with wires. For specific sequences, upside down sets were built and filmed with the performers in the Alien suits; the footage was then mirrored vertically, creating the illusion of the creatures scuttling on the ceiling. The suits were actually combined with a large number of stunt and hero puppets with various purposes. The Winston Studio crew built a total of six, eight feet tall stunt puppets -- whose purpose was to be damaged, shot at, or crushed. "Whenever we could," Winston said, "we used one of the puppets because they were about eight feet tall and very thin -- there was no way they could have been humans in suits. A couple of them were rod and cable actuated and we could put their arms into positions that a human just couldn't get into. Others were floppy puppets that were just jointed so they could be thrown or crushed or blown up -- whatever was needed." Insert animatronic arms were also built. For the most detailed actions, a single, fully articulated hero puppet was constructed from the torso up. It featured articulated lips, head, neck, and hands, whereas its arms were puppeteered with rods. To further differentiate the Aliens, the suits included hollow blade-like extensions on their arms, something absent in the stunt and hero puppets.
- #417
Bill Paxton continuously apologized to Carrie Henn throughout filming every time Hudson had to swear in front of her. Henn later admitted that she didn't mind, mainly because she really didn't know what any of the words meant. Years later, during cast reunions, Henn had grown up so much that Paxton didn't recognize her at first.
- #418
Tensions rose high on set between director James Cameron and the British crew. "I wasn't a very experienced film maker at the time. This was only my second film," said Cameron (ignoring his debut Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), from which he was fired after a week). Gale Anne Hurd and Stan Winston remember a pseudo-rebellion on set with many crew members not thinking Cameron had the talent or experience to make a sequel to Sir Ridley Scott's beloved Alien (1979). His previous film The Terminator (1984) had not been seen by many people in the UK, and it didn't help that Pinewood Studios provided its own indentured crew at the time depending on which set was used, who had certain union-mandated rights and privileges that Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd were not accustomed to, such as tea breaks and fixed working hours. Hurd remembers these "timecard punchers" constantly disrupting the pace of filming with their tea breaks or leaving before set-ups were done. In one instance, one of the sets had been smoked for an hour to get the desired smoke level, and just when Cameron wanted to shoot, a tea lady came in, and all the smoke evaporated through the open door. Hurd and Winston pointed out that the leader of this supposed "rebellion" was the first assistant director Derek Cracknell, who allegedly felt he was more suited to direct the film than Cameron and would roll his eyes at Cameron's directorial decisions. The day Cracknell was fired nearly led to a mass walkout by the crew, which would have permanently ended Cameron's and Hurd's careers due to the loss of money that 20th Century Fox had already spent on the production. However, after actress Sigourney Weaver helped to broker a truce, Cameron and Hurd made more efforts to get along with the British crew and respect their work routines and way of doing things.
- #419
The art department had covered the set when the aliens first attack with a substance to help age it. James Cameron remembers when they began using fire on the set, the heat melted the substance sending vapors in the air. This caused some extreme reactions with the actors, particularly Jenette Goldstein. "I don't remember what we did about that, probably just kept shooting," says Cameron.
- #420
(at around 1h 6 mins) For the iconic "EAT THIS" scene it was revealed in the The Beast Within: The Making of 'Alien' (2003) documentary, that had to be shot in reverse. The whole scene required perfect time and when shot in regular fashion, it took too many takes because they couldn't get the timing right. Ultimately in the end it was decided shoot the scene in reverse and giving it the flawless look it has.
- #421
After ripping Bishop apart, the Queen lowers herself down from the dropship; the full-scale Queen was used. Stan Winston recalled: "for the scene where she lowers herself down from the dropship, we ran wires from the pivot point on her back up through the ship to the top of the stage. Our stuntmen were inside operating the arms and we had wire riggers off to the side lowering the Queen down onto the ramp. Other wires -- connected to the knees and to the ankles -- allowed the legs to be controlled from above too. It was like a giant marionette. And so the moves wouldn't look floppy, we ran additional wires from her ankles to specific landing points so she could step down firmly in a dynamic position. Her tail also had to uncurl, which meant other wires and other puppeteers. It was pretty rugged. Jim had multiple cameras going and we did it a multitude of times, but the shot was worth it."
- #422
There was a lot of animosity on the set between the predominantly British crew and both James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, neither of whom had experience of working in British studios with their specific rules. One of their few allies was production designer Peter Lamont, but in the eyes of the rest, Cameron was still relatively untried as a director as very few had seen The Terminator (1984) (which had been a box office flop in the UK), and he was unworthy of making a sequel to Sir Ridley Scott's beloved Alien (1979). They allegedly mocked Hurd by suggesting she only got to be producer because she was married to Cameron, and didn't take her seriously (Hurd said that she had already rejected several potential crew members who stated that they wouldn't take orders from a woman). The crew saw Cameron and Hurd as overly demanding and arrogant, and in turn, Cameron and Hurd saw the crew as lazy (in part due to their incessant tea breaks and unwillingness to do overtime), insolent and arrogant. After the long and difficult shoot, Cameron addressed the crew by saying that one thing kept him going through it all: "The certain knowledge that one day I would drive out of Pinewood and never come back, and that you sorry bastards would still be here". Cameron indeed never came back to Pinewood studios, but later hired Lamont as production designer on True Lies (1994), and even got him out of retirement to work on Titanic (1997). Regardless of Cameron's personal feelings, Pinewood continued to be a preferred studio facility for many American directors. Ironically, Ridley Scott had had a similar experience while making Blade Runner (1982) in the USA, where he felt limited by the constricting American union rules and the inflexibility of its crew, who in turn thought that Scott was cold, distant and overly perfectionist.
- #423
- #424
- #425
- #426
The text that is superimposed over the video feeds (from the marine's cameras) seen on the video monitors in the APV were created using BBC model B microcomputers, commonplace in U.K. at the time. The built-in teletext character generator was employed, and the output was gen-locked with the signal from the helmet cameras, before being fed to the monitors on the set.
- #427
Jonesy was played by a cat named Boris, which belonged to the family of British actress and stand-up comedian Sooz Kempner when she was a little child. According to Kempner, Boris was chosen because of his ability to hiss in front of the camera, which didn't require much effort to achieve. In order to do that, they had another cat inside a cat box that was covered with a blanket. When the blanket was pulled off it, Boris started to hiss instantly.
- #428
- #429
The two Facehuggers are released by Burke in the Med Lab. In this key sequence, several models were employed, including a fully articulated hero Facehugger. "Lance worked out most of the finger mechanisms before we left for England," Winston said, "then, after we got over there, the tail whipping action and the extruding tongue elements were added, along with some fine-tuning of the controls. Everything worked on that one, requiring something like nine operators. For scenes where it's crawling up the table, we built another one that was basically the same except that it didn't have the tongue element within the body. Then Ian Rolph worked on a third one that had just the finger articulations. That was to help it scurry along and turn around on the wall before leaping off. We also made a series of floppy Facehuggers that had articulated fingers, but the fingers were left loose so the creatures could be thrown around like you'd throw a dummy off a cliff. Some of those were also used in the scenes where the Facehuggers are blown up. It's amazing how some really good dynamics came out of stuff as simple as that. We'd be wondering what sort of fancy doodad to come up with for a particular shot and Jim would say, 'let's just make a bunch of dummies -- we'll throw them and blow them up.' And for quick cuts that worked."
- #430
The hero shotgun prop used by Hicks "for close encounters" was an Ithaca Model 37 altered by having its barrel shortened and the original hand grip replaced with a World War II MP40 submachine gun pistol grip; parts of the shotguns original stock woodwork were retained as a fixing point for the MP40 aluminum grip casting. The same shotgun previously appeared in the episode Heroes (1978) of the British television series The Professionals (1977), and the episode The Bogeyman (1985) of the British television series Dempsey and Makepeace (1985) where it was used by the characters Tommy and Keith Lymon, respectively. In these television appearances the weapon was fitted with a folding stock seemingly also taken from an MP40. However for the filming of Aliens, the stock was removed. Also for Aliens the grip had gaffer tape wrapped around it covering the entire grip along with the holes for mounting the folding stock. By the time the shotgun came to be in the possession of the prop store, the tape had long been removed.
- #431
An early dream sequence portrays Ripley's nightmare, where she sees the Chestburster pushing itself through her chest. "It's actually a wonderful effect," Winston said. "She pulls her top up and you see her whole body stretch as the Chestburster pushes out from the inside. For that particular gimmick, Sigourney was on a slant board under the bed with a duplicate appliance body on top and an operator underneath pushing the Chestburster up. It was particularly effective because anyone who's seen the first film knows exactly what it is, but it never actually bursts through. Tom Woodruff was largely responsible for that effect."
- #432
When filming the scene with Newt in the duct, Carrie Henn kept deliberately blowing her scene so she could slide down the vent, which she later called a slide three stories tall. James Cameron finally dissuaded her by saying that if she completed the shot, she could play on it as much as she wanted. She did, and he kept his promise.
- #433
The creation of the full-size animatronic Queen began with the construction of a solid understructure able to support the various components and mechanisms, as well as the two internal stuntmen. The two puppeteers inside the Queen were Nick Gillard and Malcolm Weaver. Winston recalled: "the first thing we had to do was build the inner body of the Queen. The strong fiberglass shells that would hold the stuntmen and the strong aluminium plate inside that would carry the hydraulics. That inner section would in large part dictate the size of the Queen's body, so it was necessary to work that out in advance." Assigned to the fabrication of the supporting structure were Rick Lazzarini and Wayne Sturm. Once completed, it was shipped to London, where the rest of the construction would be held. "We set up shop on a large effects stage at Pinewood," Winston said, "and began building the different components of the Queen -- which basically we designed and built and sculpted exactly as we had done the miniature. Armatures were built for the legs and arms and body and head and tail -- all separately."
- #434
Queen Alien was played by Stuart St Paul (right-hand side) and Malcolm Weaver (left-hand side), the only two James Cameron would have inside his queen. The actual Queen was built around them, strapped back-to-back. Their neck muscles together swung its head, their feet worked a paddle to swing the tail, the outstretched arms formed the upper arm, and wrists became the elbow joint puppeteering a floppy hand on (4, 2 each) sticks that were rested on a stand. They had earpieces and took direction direct from James Cameron and worked with Sigourney Weaver (no relation to Malcolm) in the big end fight. They were strapped in at the beginning of the day, taken out for lunch, and then not until the end of the day. Comfort breaks were very rarely taken because of the assembly time.
- #435
Alec Gillis sculpted the Facehugger, with the original models as reference -- whereas Lance Anderson devised the internal mechanisms of the main models. Several different Facehugger with specific ranges of motion were built and used depending on the requirements of the sequences. As opposed to the original creature's actually organic underside, the new Facehuggers had foam latex skin. Various dead and decomposed Facehuggers were built for the first Hive scene and the Med Lab scene, and a dead Facehugger with real organic innards -- including chicken skins -- was devised for the autopsy sequence.
- #436
At one point, James Cameron lost his cool and yelled at an actress who had trouble with handling the props. When Sigourney Weaver noticed that, she went to Cameron and said "When you yell at an actor, you yell at all of us, so understand that what she was doing actually was very hard. Maybe shoot something else while she gets used to doing this stuff the way you want it."
- #437
A structure of otherworldly geometry, with swirling biomechanical shapes, the Hive was built as a massive 'make-up' for the Power Station set. It was sculpted in its various components in clay and then moulded in latex and fiberglass, depending on the specific piece. Production designer Peter Lamont explained: "We got two castings a day from each mold. Some were cast off in fiberglass and others were vacuformed. In all, there were hundreds of pieces, most of which were painted by one of our scenic artists. We spent about three weeks on that while the power station was being cleaned up. Then we moved into the plant and started fitting these things into place. A team of painters had already gone through with I don't know how many gallons of silver spray paint, so already it was starting to look not much like a power station. By the time we finished, it was really transformed. We had just three weeks to complete the work once we got inside. It was quite a chore. We started on the lower floor and were still working on the upper floor when production began. As Jim came up shooting, we were gradually retreating behind." Most of the cocooned colonists were sculpted dummies with faces cast from various actors.
- #438
The Queen was portrayed by a combination of a full-size animatronic model and small-scale miniatures. The full-size Queen, constructed by Stan Winston's special effects company, used a combination of stunt performers encased within the puppet and external manipulation to achieve its performance; this innovative approach was devised by James Cameron. As such an animatronic had never before been constructed, the concept was first tested with a crude mock-up (affectionately called the "Garbage Bag Queen" by Winston's team, due to the black trash bags used to cover it) in the parking lot of Winston's studio in Los Angeles. The final full-size Queen puppet was constructed in England and was mounted on a large crane, kept out of shot in the film through clever editing. Although only one body shell was utilized for the majority of filming, a second was built especially for shots of the Queen from behind, with a different closing mechanism for sealing the stunt men within.
- #439
The special effects crew had painstakingly hand-painted one of the Alien suits with blue-ish tints, which they believed would give it an interesting ranges of hues in the set lighting. When the stunt man arrived on set in the suit, director James Cameron was puzzled by the color, despite assurances from the crew that this would still appear as different shades of black on screen. However, Cameron wanted the suit pitch black because the Aliens were supposed to blend into the black hive, so he personally spray-painted the suit black on the spot, with the actor still in it.
- #440
The base of the ME3 props used, was a Hama "Kameragriff mit Spiralkabel" 50 cm (5506 or 5507). It appears that the welder may have not been directly built from a Hama grip and that the grip was used as the base the welder prototype was build on, as the screw holes on the right side of the grip have been filled in, the "trigger" has been omitted and the hinge bracket has been fixed in place and extended to the back. It is possible the prototype was then used to cast shells, which would then cover a real TIG welder.
- #441
- #442
- #443
- #444
Ripley realizes that the only way to defeat the creature is to eject it out of the Sulaco's main airlock -- a method familiar to her. "Where Ripley wallops the Queen with the Power Loader arms, then grabs her by the neck and lifts her into the air -- that was all done live action," Notaro explained. "We picked it up with the puppets at that point, just as Ripley is about to toss the Queen into the airlock. We had a couple shots of them fighting, then the Queen breaks one of the hydraulics on the right knee of the Power Loader and it buckles up, sending both of them crashing to the bottom of the airlock." When the Queen falls into the airlock, the dummy Queen was used. The full-size creature was then filmed under the Power Loader model. To portray the Queen being ejected into outer space, the airlock portion of the set was bolted to the ceiling, with a starfield blanket below. Both the miniature and full-size Queen (which was adequately supported by wires) were used when the creature attempts to hold onto Ripley's leg, before finally falling to her demise. The final shot of the Queen writhing aimlessly as she falls towards the camera was again achieved with the 1:4th scale puppet -- which was attached to a motion control system, and filmed against bluescreen. Visual effects supervisor, Brian Johnson (who had already worked on Alien) commented: "in addition to the rotation, the Queen had cable-operated head movements, cable-operated arms, and legs, plus a few exterior wires to jiggle the tail a bit -- all of which were nonrepeatable. So that was another instance where we had to use bluescreen."
- #445
In order to minimize the number of required puppeteers for the 1:4th scale puppet, Notaro devised coordinated cable functions that could be controlled with a single joystick -- an idea that also allowed more organic movement. Notaro explained: "oftentimes the difference between jerky, unnatural-looking movement and fluid, natural-looking movement is the way the functions have been organized for operation. When I hook up these kinds of things, I try to group the cables together in such a way that one puppeteer can handle several functions. But they have to be interrelated functions. On the Queen, for example, the head, neck and face functions were all fed into one set of joysticks so that just one operator could control everything needed to give the character expression. That's the only way to get a real flow in the character. You don't want to have one operator controlling two different functions; nor do you want to have one function operated by a whole bunch of people. It just makes sense. If the functions are interrelated, you can get a better feeling for the character and make it look more realistic. It also means less breakdown in communication. If you want something to happen, you tell one person as opposed to telling three or four and then trying to choreograph their movements." The Queen's 49 cables were controlled by ten joystick systems, operated by a total of five puppeteers on the set -- although four assistants were also needed: from above the set, two supported and directed the Queen, and two others puppeteered the legs from below the set. At times, the Queen was also shot upside-down, in order to better conceal the wires.
- #446
- #447
The Alien Queen was originally intended to be done using stop motion, but director James Cameron wanted it all to be done live. Stan Winston noted that the Queen as seen in the final battle (or as he referred to it, the "biggest marionette in motion picture history"), was brought to life using rod puppets, hydraulics, radio controls, and wires. Because the full-size Queen could only be moved slowly, these scenes were shot with a lower frame rate, and Sigourney Weaver would also have to move much slower; when played at regular speed, it would also appropriately speed up the Queen's movements. For certain wide shots in the final battle, detailed miniatures of the Queen and Ripley in the Power Loader were used. While filming the shot of the Power Loader being ejected from the airlock, a piece of fabric was held underneath to catch the expensive miniature. Unfortunately, it ripped right through the cloth and fell on the ground, so it had to be glued together quickly for additional shots.
- #448
In the Med Lab scene, two of the Facehuggers in the stasis tubes are still alive. To portray the creatures suspended in water, the models were controlled by cables. "For the [Facehugger] that slams up against the inside of the tube," Winston said, "the difficulty was that it had to be operated underwater. The tube had to have a water-tight seal, but we had to be able to move in and out with our cables. Getting the tail to whip around in a confined space and underwater was a major challenge. We tried various things such as air pressure and water pressure, but nothing seemed to work. Finally, Ray Lowell came up with a spring-loaded tail that was cable-operated. Pulling on the cable would curl the tail up very tightly and then releasing it would allow it to whip open. At the same time, two other cables moved the base of the tail in a 360-degree axis so that it would pivot around while the tail itself was whipping. It worked beautifully."
- #449
- #450
Two Queen heads were built, one of which was designed to be sturdy and durable, the other lightweight. Both heads incorporated hydraulics and cable controls to articulate the jaws and lips, while the heavier hero head had additional functionality, including a working inner jaw and the ability to tilt on the puppet's neck. The two stunt men inside the puppet, who were concealed within the Queen's chest, controlled the creature's four arms; one of these stuntmen, Nick Gillard, later played a background prisoner character in Alien³ (1992). In addition to the stunt performers, the puppet incorporated numerous hydraulically-operated systems, operated externally using power steering units taken from cars. The legs were puppeted. The entire construct required 14-16 external crewmembers to operate. At the time of filming, the Queen in Aliens was the largest, most complex puppet ever created.
- #451
The climactic fight with the power loader ensues. Special effects supervisor John Richardson explained: "during the fight, there were a lot of different things happening all at once. In fact, for the scenes where we had the Alien Queen and the power loader working together, the whole stage was full of special effects people pulling wires and pushing levers. It was quite a sight." The sequence employed an orchestrated combination of footage with the full-size Queen and the 1:4th scale puppet. When the Power Loader violently smashes the Queen with its lifting arms, the dummy version was used. "We used the floppy Queen for a lot of the tumbling and falling sequences," Notaro said. "It was just hard and soft foam pieces glued together. We'd throw the floppy Queen over a bunch of boxes, for example, then cut back to the articulated Queen for when she stood back up."
- #452
One of the Facehugger animatronics was devised to scuttle around on the floor. Winston recalled: "I wanted to do a pull-toy type of thing, where we would literally pull it across the floor and a wheel would turn underneath or something and cause the legs to move. In a way, that's pretty much what we ended up doing; but at the start we couldn't quite figure out how to do it, so we got off on a few tangents." Ultimately, Cameron was inspired by his earlier work on Piranha II. Winston continues: "Finally, Jim called me from England and said: 'I don't know why I didn't think of this, Stan, but I did this thing for Piranha II, where a fish was pulled through the water over a wire and we had a little mechanism inside to make the tail wiggle.' So, working from that idea, he drew out a little design of what he thought the insides could be for the Facehugger, sent it over here, and Rick Lazzarini proceeded to make it work -- which was quite a job since there were still an awful lot of problems to overcome. The Facehugger was on a wire that wrapped around a rubber-surfaced gear on the inside and was held taut by two operators on either end. Pulling the Facehugger along that wire would cause the gear to move which in turn would move other smaller gears connected to the legs. The gearing mechanism turned out to be very intricate, but the simple brilliance of the idea was that there was a correlation between how fast you pulled the Facehugger and how fast the legs would go. If you pulled it fast, the legs would move fast; if you pulled it slow, the legs would go slow." Lazzarini himself added that "it could even 'jump' if the front operator moved his end of the cable up and down rapidly."
- #453
The first section to be constructed was the Queen's tail. "The simplest armature to build was for the tail, so I decided we should do that first," Winston said. "Not that it was simple by any stretch of the imagination, but the tail was probably the easiest to build quickly and I figured it would be a good break-in project for my English crew to help me assess individual strengths and weaknesses. Once the tail armature was done, we could then go to clay on it while the rest of the armatures were being built." The tail was sculpted by Steve Norrington, John Robertson, Christine Overs and Philomena Davis, whereas its internal mechanisms were devised by Ray Lovell and Richard Landon. The torso had to accommodate two stuntmen inside of it to operate the arms. Winston said: "foam human figures representing the two men were placed inside our already-completed body plate, and a wire mesh sculpting armature was constructed around it. That way we could be sure of having enough room." John Rosengrant, who had sculpted the maquette's torso, also sculpted the full-size torso. Welded steel armatures were built for the head, arms, and legs. Shane Mahan, who had sculpted the maquette's head, also worked on the full-size head; Chris Overs, Steve Norrington, and Philomena Davis sculpted the outer arms; John Rosengrant, Tom Woodruff, and John Robertson sculpted the inner arms (which matched those of the Alien Warriors); and Graham High and John Robertson sculpted the legs. The same people collaborated in painting the Queen. A team of mould makers from Pinewood -- headed by Keith Shannon -- worked on the casts and molds of the Queen's components. To minimize the weight of such a massive puppet, the Queen's skin or surface was cast in a very light polyfoam -- placed directly over the armature sections -- and fiberglass for the more rigid parts, such as the crown extension. For most of the sequences involving the full-scale puppet, it was supported by a crane arm; depending on the shot, it would be above, with wires, or from below, with a rigid bracket mount. Winston said: "the wires and the bracket both attached to a point midway down the Queen's back. The wires were used primarily for the shots where you see her full body. Usually, though, you never see below her knees, and that's where the bracket came in. The bracket came out of the Queen's back, down one side of her spine and then under her body where it connected to the crane arm, at her pivot axis. The configuration of this bracket -- which was built for us by John Richardson and his effects crew -- enabled us to shoot the Queen without showing the crane arm, because the arm connected to the bracket well below the frame line. The bracket itself was also virtually invisible, mainly because we could run it down either side of her back and it would be concealed by her spiny vertebrae. The pivot action that allowed her body to turn was hydraulically controlled by a power steering unit off the crane arm. So an operator, if we wanted the Queen to turn from right to left, would simply turn a steering wheel from right to left and the body would do the same." Two pivot devices allowed the Queen to respectively tilt forward and back and move her neck up and down. Trevor Butterfield devised the hydraulic mechanisms of the body. The controls for all body portions were connected to separate power steering units, each maneuvered by a single operator.
- #454
- #455
- #456
- #457
Like most films, the movie wasn't shot in sequence. But for added realism, James Cameron filmed the scene where we first meet the Colonial Marines, one of the earliest scene, last. This was so that the camaraderie of the Marines was realistic because the actors had spent months filming together.
- #458
When the Hive is introduced, the camera pans down the ceiling of the colony structure, encrusted with the resinous material. The sequence actually employs a miniature devised by Robert and Dennis Skotak, combined with forced perspective. Robert Skotak explained: "It would have taken forever to do that for real, not to mention the expense. So after thinking about it for a while, we decided the best way to do it would be with a hanging miniature. The way the shot was set up was that the actors would be very close, literally right on their heads underneath it -- and then they'd kind of look around and walk back into the depth of the set. So what we needed to do was to continue the encrustation up above the actors, and also continue the pipe work and the scaffolding and the catwalks and everything else. The art department had gone to Acton and gotten all the measurements -- where the lift was, where the pipes were, basically the whole floor plan. Then, to save time while the plant was being cleaned up, they reconstructed that section in plywood on L stage and built the cocoon mass over it in carved styrofoam. While it was there on the stage. Dennis and I set up a camera in a position we'd selected while at Acton and determined all the measurements we'd need for the hanging miniature and its supports. Then we ran some film through the camera of the beginning, middle and end of a tilt-down, made prints and traced on top of them where we wanted all the lines and pipes and everything to go. We gave that sketch to Steve Begg and he went up to Acton with Chrissy Overs, and together they finished the miniature on site." The miniature was 10 feet high and 12 feet wide, and had to be blended with the full-size Hive set beyond it. Dennis Skotak recalled: "there were a lot of last-minute adjustments to be made, mainly because the live-action set was not quite ready until a day or so before we started to shoot. Since a lot of what we had to do depended on the final set dressing and paint job, it was pretty crazy those last couple of days trying to get our blend just right." Cameron decided to shoot the sequence in the fog, and as such vapour had to be emitted in lesser amounts on the miniature -- since it was closer to the camera (a uniform emission would have caused "an inconsistency in aerial density"). Dennis Skotak continues: "it was a very delicate balance. We found as we were there that by adding the slightest amount of fill light on the miniature and then wetting everything down and blowing in just the right amount of fog that it all worked together. It was transitory, though. Cast and crew would be standing around waiting, and when everything looked right, we'd say: 'that's it! Shoot!' -- and everybody would go for it. The blend was there literally just for moments and then it would be gone. We were very fortunate that after all the struggle it worked."
- #459
(at around 1h 55 mins) Carrie Henn's least favorite scene to film was the one where Newt is trapped inside the nest. She had to crawl through a hole to get into her cocoon every time, and the secretions that look so tough on screen were actually made from fiberglass, which was quite fragile; if they broke, they could not be redone, so Henn had to make it look like she was firmly entangled by the strands without resting her weight on them. This made filming the scene quite exhausting and frustrating.
- #460
While shooting on the shuttle set carrying all the soldiers to LV-426, the roof collapsed when the grips began shaking it, mimicking the shuttle dropping to the planet's surface. A large piece of the set hit James Cameron in the head, causing the director to bleed. "You think they did that on purpose over there?" asked Lance Henriksen.
- #461
The internal stuntmen also contributed to puppeteering the Alien Queen's lower body section and tail. Winston explained: "there was hydraulic movement of the tail at the base for ups and downs, but the side-to-side moves depended upon the amount of pressure the stuntmen put on their footplate -- which also happened to be the Queen's hips. Putting pressure alternately on one side or the other would cause the hips to move from side to side. That, combined with the hydraulic action, created a great deal of base tail movement. At the same time, the outer extremity of the tail was actuated by external wires -- usually a combination of two or three wires, each controlled by a different operator."
- #462
Although James Cameron intended to use the full-scale Queen for most of the sequences, he acknowledged that it could not perform specific movements required by a number of scenes in the script. It was decided to combine the Winston animatronic with a quarter scale puppet, maneuvered with rods and wires. Stop-motion was initially considered, but ultimately discarded for budget and practical reasons. "As a director, I find it tough to deal with stop-motion," Cameron recalled. "I was very happy with what was done on The Terminator, but by that point in the story we were dealing with a mechanical device and I didn't feel the look of stop-motion violated anything we'd already done. I was a little more worried about it with Aliens; the scenes involving the Alien Queen were very important, and what we were trying to do was create a real and believable character. Plus, when we started to analyze the types of shots we'd be doing we realized that most of them would require fairly quick action -- turns and spins and rapid strides -- the sorts of moves that in stop-motion would cause so much displacement per frame that the arms and legs would end up strobing. There are things you just can't do in any other way, though, so originally the plan was to have a rod puppet version and a stop-motion version. But eventually it got down to budget and it became a choice of either one or the other. Given that, the rod and cable-actuated puppet seemed more appealing for a number of reasons. One was that I had never worked with that kind of thing before and I wanted to fool around with it and see what could be done. Also I just had a feeling that with a lot of the floor effects we'd be using -- smoke and steam and that sort of thing -- we'd have more flexibility with puppets we could shoot 'live' on a miniature set." To build the fully articulated small-scale puppet, Cameron hired Doug Beswick -- who, like Winston, had already collaborated with the director on The Terminator, being responsible for the stop-motion effects of the Robot. Among his effects crew for Aliens were mechanical designer Phil Notaro, cosmetics supervisor Tony Gardner, and construction supervisor Jim Belohovek. "Our puppet was going to be the same size as Stan's miniature model -- about three feet tall -- so while they were still in the process of sculpting, Phil would go over there and take measurements and photographs of it so that he could begin working on some early mechanical designs." As devised by Beswick and Notaro, the Queen would be supported by a pole that extended from the base of her spine and was attached to a maneuverable overhead crossbar. Her basic motion was controlled by rods attached to her feet and inserted through slots in the miniature set floor. The Queen's proportionally thin design made it complex to devise a mechanical system that could be fitted inside her anatomy. Beswick continues: "from a mechanical perspective, the design was very difficult -- mainly because the Queen was extremely complex and extremely skinny. During that first month when the model was still being sculpted, Phil was able to do some of the mechanics we'd be needing, but not a whole lot because the dimensions weren't totally locked in yet. In fact, we ended up having to do a couple of things over -- like the back joint. Phil underestimated how deep they were going to sculpt the undercuts all around the thorax and, as a result, when it was finished the mechanism he'd worked out for it didn't fit. So he had to cut it way down, and even then it just barely made it." The internal mechanisms fit tightly inside the miniature Queen. "The thorax narrowed down to a tiny triangle-shaped area that was maybe three inches from corner to corner," he said. "That in itself wasn't bad, but because the Queen had so many mechanical functions we ended up having to run 49 cables through that area -- through a hole that was only about an inch and a half around. Complicating things further was the fact that the Queen was going to have to bend at the waist. As a result, we had to put in a massive joint that would enable her to bend with all those cables in there, plus an inch of foam all the way around. It was important that we have a lot of control over the body. Most especially, it had to be solid enough to hold its position so that when the head was slashing back and forth, the body wouldn't follow it. The arms were also a problem. They were only three-quarters of an inch in diameter on the outside, yet they had nine functions each. The arms and shoulders moved up and down, forward and back, and rotated. The elbows and wrists bent, the forearms rotated, and even though they were smaller than a soda straw -- about three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter -- all of the fingers had to be functional. We kept trying to talk Jim into either simplifying the Queen or fattening her up a bit, but he was very adamant that we stick to the design. It got to be kind of funny because we'd go to him and say, 'couldn't the fingers be a little bit bigger?' And he'd say, 'that's not the design.' Or we'd say, 'there's not enough room for a mechanism in here.' And he'd say, 'but that's the design.' Everything we asked for, we didn't get." Ultimately, the small scale puppet replicated the final Queen design perfectly, as Cameron had intended it to do. A basic aluminium armature was built and mechanized. Available space was always a concern. "As each new mechanism went in," Notaro said, "space became very tough to come by. I'd lay out a game plan for where I could put something -- usually in some tiny little space somewhere -- and then I'd have to go in and shift everything all around to actually make it work. It was a long, continuous process. By the time I finished, there was virtually no room left inside at all." The Queen puppet was fully articulated; the head could be moved widely, complete with the signature independent facial motion, as well as opening jaws and an extending tongue. Her lower neck section could also perform a wide range of movements. The outer arms could move fluidly, and were fitted with functional fingers -- whereas the inner arms had more limited motion. The wrists of both versions were floppy, allowing the hands to move about as the arms were puppeteered. The Queen's back spines could also move up and down whereas her tail was both mechanized and puppeteered with external wires.
- #463
- #464
- #465
Placing the Queen's skin also proved to be difficult -- since the special effects artists had to determine the thickness of the layer of foam latex. "Usually, we have a fiberglass substructure in our figures," Notaro said, "but, in this case, there was no room for one. So the foam had to be thick enough that we wouldn't have metal things poking through it, yet thin enough to still bend and fit the character. We had a core that was put inside to hollow out the foam body, but by the time I was done putting in all the mechanics, Tony had to literally cut the foam down to paper thinness in some spots." The Queen's large crown also posed a practical challenge due to its sheer size and ratio between it and the Monster's neck. The structure had to be light and resilient. "It was about 18 inches long," Beswick said, "which was huge in relation to the tiny neck joint it had to rest on. So it had to be very light, yet strong enough to make it through shooting. We made it out of the thinnest fiberglass we've ever used -- about 30 thousandths of an inch thick. We used a little bit of gel coat, then one layer of angel hair, one layer of half-ounce cloth and a very little bit of resin. We did it in two sections -- the top and bottom separately -- and then seamed them together. Amazingly, it was very strong and it held up through the filming like a trooper."
- #466
When 20th Century Fox execs saw an early cut of the film, they complained to producer Gale Anne Hurd that it looked like the money had all been spent on sets rather than special effects. Hurd took great delight in telling the execs that a majority of the sets that they were seeing in the film were indeed miniatures or optical effects (eg, special effects). The artists behind these images were very pleased that their work had fooled the money men.
- #467
According to Lance Henriksen, when he saw the movie at the premiere, he was so impressed by the effort that James Cameron had put into the making of the movie as a director, writer and designer, that he was left speechless to the point that he promised Cameron that he would write him a letter to properly express his feelings on it. He never ended up doing this, and Cameron misinterpreted all this as a sign that Henriksen hated the movie. Eventually, they cleared it all up.
- #468
Frost has a heart-and-arrow decoration on his armor with the name "Heath" (short for Heather, Ricco Ross' girlfriend at the time). Unfortunately, there wasn't room for the entire name, and because of this, Ross has stated that fans of the movie often come up to him to ask him if "Heath" is his boyfriend.
- #469
The Queen's acidic blood announces her presence in the Sulaco. Several different chemical combinations were tested, but ultimately the crew had to resort to the polystyrene approach. Richardson recalled: "we went back to the polystyrene approach but tried to give it a different look. Instead of acetone, we used carbon tetrachloride - which produces basically the same effect - and we mixed it with all sorts of dyes and soaps and other chemicals so that when it hit not only would it dissolve the polystyrene, but it would smoke and bubble while doing so - which was much better than just seeing something melt through. Also, I found that by adding metallic powder onto the surface of the polystyrene, as it dissolved the powder floated on top of the solution - and looked very much like molten metal."
- #470
Most of the British crew members stopped work in order to take their contractual tea breaks at set times. While Carrie Henn said that these breaks were her favorite parts of the day, the non-British actors, crew members and especially director James Cameron were frustrated by it, as they felt that it unnecessarily slowed down the production of the film. The first time it happened was when Cameron was setting up the scene on the colony complex before the Alien invasion. All the actors' and extras' movements had been carefully choreographed for the complex scene, and he was about to go ahead when he noticed that every single crew member was standing in a queue to buy food from the tea lady, which took so long that he could have done at least two takes of the scene in that time. Cameron got in line himself, asked what the entire trolley would cost him, paid the tea lady and then kicked over the trolley. After a long silence, he informed the crew that next time, each department was to send their head to buy snacks for the entire group rather than everyone going in individually, or he would take production elsewhere and they would all be out of a job. Cameron later joked that he still plans to track down the tea lady or her next of kin to apologize.
- #471
Since the elbow movement was to be controlled by a wrist, the Queen's arms had to be very lightweight and maneuverable. Winston said: "it was especially important that the large arms be as lightweight as possible. As with our foam-core and trash bag mock-up, the stuntmen's arms reached only as far as the Queen's elbows, so the whole movement of each forearm and hand had to be controlled by the wrist of a person whose own arm was stretched out straight. For the forearms, we again used a ski pole set-up -- this time with hands that could be either positionable or floppy. Depending on the shot, we could position them in dynamic poses or loosen them up so that they would move around freely when the arms moved. In either case, there was no real articulation as such -- but amazingly, the approach worked very well. With all the thrashing around the Queen did, it was impossible to tell if the hand movements were free or directed. For our fighting arms, the ski poles were foamed right into the forearm section, which could thus take quite a beating. We also had a set of lighter-weight arms that were polyfoam down to the Queen's elbows, but then the forearm was a thin vacuformed shell that weighed practically nothing. Those allowed the stuntmen to have much freer movement -- but they were very fragile, so we couldn't use them to bash up against things or else they'd crush." Insert arms were also built for scenes requiring great dexterity, such as when the Queen tries to catch Newt under the Sulaco floor grates. Winston explained: "the insert arms -- which were done by Ray Lovell -- had completely articulated fingers, cable-controlled by external operators. These we could use in one of two ways. Either we could position the Queen with her elbows out of frame -- then come in from the outside with these articulated hands -- or we could connect the whole articulated arm right to the Queen's body. If we did that, though, we couldn't have our stuntmen inside." For the legs, Steve Norrington and Richard Landon devised inner articulated armatures, in two versions. "One was for the full legs that were puppeteered externally by wires," Winston said. "The other was for a separate set of legs that had no foam below the calf. These were used for closer shots where the feet were not in frame and could therefore be moved about simply by having operators grab onto the base of the armature and manually step the Queen through her paces."
- #472
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 52 mins) For the scene where the marines drive to the nest in the APC, director James Cameron instructed Carrie Henn to whisper something to her doll Casey. When it was time to record additional dialogue for this scene and Henn was asked to repeat her lines, she admitted that she had just whispered something like "This is stupid, why am I talking to a doll?" The recording team then had her say "It's okay, don't worry, it'll be okay", which matched her mouth movements just enough. Henn later admitted that she never told this to Cameron.
- #473
- #474
- #475
- #476
Contains a major spoiler — show
The original design of the xenomorph head from Alien (1979) was initially copied. It had a ridged forehead with a layer of semi-translucent gel covering the ridges, to make it appear smooth. When James Cameron saw the heads as a work in progress without the gel, he thought the ridges made the heads more interesting, so the gel was left out; the hard-egded lighting that Cameron was going to use on set wouldn't have properly lit the dome anyway. The difference in appearance between the creatures from both films has since been the subject of several fan theories, one being that the ridged Xenomorphs from Aliens are much older than their only hours-old counterpart from the first movie, and have lost the covering gel as part of their natural maturation process. Another theory is that the ridged Aliens are a warrior caste within the species, specifically bred to protect the Queen. Cameron himself simply explained it away as that these Aliens were a slightly mutated version of the original creature.
- #477
Contains a major spoiler — show
To bring the Alien queen to life would take anything between 14 and 16 operators, since the head, neck, body, legs, face, lips, jaws and tongue all had to move independently. Stan Winston constructed a mold from fiberglass and foam, which was subsequently dressed with black garbage bags and moved by two puppeteers inside, in order for director James Cameron to shoot a test video with his own camera as proof to the studio that such a large creature would be feasible. The test was so successful that 'garbage bag test' is now an industry term for testing a prototype special effect. The fully built animatronic creature was so convincing that Steven Spielberg later enlisted Winston to construct the full animatronic T-Rex for Jurassic Park (1993).
- #478
- #479
- #480
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 43 mins) The mechanism used to make the face-huggers thrash about in the stasis tubes in the science lab came from one of the "flying piranhas" in one of James Cameron's earlier movies Piranha II: The Spawning (1982). It took nine people to make the face-hugger work: one person for each leg and one for the tail.
- #481
Contains a major spoiler — show
For the shot of the queen impaling Bishop with her tail, rather than doing a standard slant-board/fake body effect, Stan Winston and James Cameron designed the shot so that Bishop would be standing upright, in full view, when the Queen's tail burst through his chest. To achieve this, Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis built a chest plate for Lance Henriksen, containing a flexible rubberized tail laid flat inside; this tail was then pulled out by a wire to appear as if it had punctured Bishop's body. For the next shot, Henriksen wore an 'arrow-through-the-head'-type rig built by Special Effects supervisor John Richardson's crew, consisting of a harness with a rigid tail piece in front, while the back side was connected to the Queen puppet. Henriksen stood on a teeter-totter that leveraged him upwards with his feet kept out of frame, making it look as if the Queen's tail was lifting him up all the way up to the ceiling where she is hiding. In the final stage of the sequence where the Queen rips him in half, Woodruff and Gillis led the build of a Bishop dummy that matched Henriksen's expression from the previous shot. Richardson devised the actual breakaway mechanism, a spring-loaded armature inside the dummy that would split in half when activated. To make it look as if the Queen initiated the ripping action, the creature's hands were fit into slots on the dummy, causing them to move with the spring-loaded action. Dropping to the floor, Bishop's severed upper half grabs Newt to keep her from being ejected out of the decompressing cargo hold. Woodruff and Gillis built the upper torso dummy with organic and inorganic guts spilling out, and the ever-present milky substance squirting out of it. Henriksen's head and arms extended out of a hole in the set floor, and the fake torso was attached at his shoulders. "I felt so bad for Lance Henriksen when we shot that scene," recalled Lindsay Macgowan. "He was underneath the floor, on the slant board, and the fake chest piece was there at his head, writhing around, squirting out this white fluid. I believe Lance was in that setup for two or three days of shooting; and after a while, it was really rank because the milk had spoiled. It smelled disgusting. Poor Lance was in it that whole time, and I don't know how he did it. Every time I had to go near him to adjust something, I'd have to hold my nose and hold my breath. None of us wanted to go near him. 'Okay, which one of us is going to go over and deal with Lance?' Nobody wanted to do it. But Lance coped with it really well. He never complained."
- #482
Contains a major spoiler — show
For the pulse rifles, James Cameron wanted the brightest muzzle flash possible so that the firing would light up the actors faces, like in the classic early gangster films; in which they used Thompson submachine guns. The flash was due to the inefficiency of the tommy gun, in which unburned powder would fly from the barrel and be ignited on the way out. After trying out every fully automatic weapon in the armorer's collection, they found the one with the brightest muzzle flash - which turned out to be the classic Thompson submachine gun.
- #483
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 18 mins, extended version only) The model of the derelict alien ship is the same model used in the first film. 20th Century Fox had turned the model over to effects wizard (and prop archivist) Bob Burns, who had the prop sitting in his driveway and was happy to loan it to the production for its brief appearance in this film. The model had been battered and damaged over the years, which was fortuitous, as the ship in the film was intended to be damaged from the elements and volcanic activity, so the prop was used mostly unaltered. Due to its fragility, it was not shipped to the set in England but filmed in the USA instead, and returned to Burns afterwards. Burns later sent the ship off to another collector to have it restored to its former glory, but instead, it was taken and finally auctioned off to an unknown person, much to Burns' dismay. Its current whereabouts are unknown.
- #484
Contains a major spoiler — show
James Cameron took the actors playing the Marines to the art department one afternoon, where they were requested to personalize their own costumes (battle armor and fatigues) for added realism (much like soldiers in Vietnam wrote and drew things on their own helmets). Actress Cynthia Dale Scott, who has German roots and plays Corporal Dietrich, has the words "BLUE ANGEL" written on the back of her helmet, a reference to Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel (1930) or Blue Angel. Bill Paxton has "Louise" written on his armor, in dedication to his real-life wife, Louise Newbury. Ricco Ross carved a heart into his armor and wanted to add the name of his then-partner Heather into it, but because he ran out of space, it became "Heath".
- #485
Contains a major spoiler — show
In Alien (1979), Bolaji Badejo, a 7-foot tall performer had been used to portray the Alien, so that it towered over the human characters. Since this film called for many Aliens and the production would never be able to find so many tall people, 6-feet stunt performers were hired, reasoning that the humans and Aliens would hardly be seen in the same frame anyway. Tall, remote-controlled Alien puppets with very thin arms and legs were used in some shots, to make the creatures appear less like the traditional 'man in a suit'. Some were filled with two kinds of chemicals that would mix while being riddled by bullets, and this mixture would then cause smoke that simulated acid burns. Although more Alien suits were created, only six were used at a time, and even then they were often just a handful of latex appliances on black leotards, to give the stunt performers more freedom to move. The appearance of hundreds of Aliens is simply clever editing and planning, and lighting plus slime helped make the "suits" more solid.
- #486
- #487
Contains a major spoiler — show
One of the perfect locations they found for the Alien nest was the decommissioned coal-fired Acton Lane Power Station in Acton, West London. The only trouble with it was that it was heavily riddled with asbestos. A team was sent in to clean up the plant, and atmosphere readings had to be taken constantly throughout filming in this location to make sure that the air was clear of contamination. Fortuitously, the Acton location turned out to have better atmospheric quality than Pinewood Studios. Another problem, however, was that the nest scenes were shot during the winter; although the characters keep noting how hot it is inside, the whole set was actually freezing cold, and crew members had to constantly cover the actor's faces with gel to simulate sweating.
- #488
Contains a major spoiler — show
All of the cast who were to play the Marines were trained in a harrowing boot camp by former S.A.S. soldier (Special Air Service, Britain's elite special operations unit) Tip Tipping (who would later play Pvt. Crowe) and former Marine sergeant Al Matthews (who would later play Apone) for two weeks before filming, as to make their behavior and sense of camaraderie real. Sigourney Weaver, Paul Reiser (Burke), and William Hope (Gorman) didn't participate/attend the training because director James Cameron felt it would help the actors create a sense of detachment between the three and the Marines - the characters these three actors played were all outsiders to the squad; Ripley being an advisor to the Marines while on the trip to LV-426, Burke being there just for financial reasons and Gorman being a newly-promoted Lieutenant with less experience than most of the Marines. Michael Biehn did not attend boot camp either because he replaced James Remar one week into filming.
- #489
Contains a major spoiler — show
Along with the full-size puppet, miniatures were used for the Queen's fight with the Power Loader, as well as shots of her enormous ovipositor laying eggs within the hive. These miniatures were sculpted by Shane Mahan, Alec Gillis, John Rosengrant and Shawn McEnroe. Gillis, who had only been present during the live-action filming but not the miniature shoot, later said that the two were so seamlessly combined that it confused him during the premiere, when he saw live-action shots (or so he thought) that he didn't remember being filmed.
- #490
Contains a major spoiler — show
Lance Henriksen caught a dose of food poisoning from the milk, yogurt and cream combination that he had to spew up when his chest was pierced by the alien queen's tail. Special effects technician Alec Gillis had not realized that this lactose combination sitting around under hot studio lights would create a bacterial breeding ground, which started to smell so bad after three days of filming that most crew members got hesitant to go near Henriksen (who reportedly endured the smell and never complained even once). The special effects crew of the first Alien (1979) film had specifically opted not to use milk for Ash's "death" scene (where he also spews the milky substance out of his mouth) as they recognized a fluid made of milk would go sour under the hot lights (see also trivia for Alien). Gillis said that he apologized to Henriksen for making him sick, but Henriksen forgave him, stating that he would use this sensation in his performance.
- #491
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 21 mins) The knife trick scene was originally going to be done by Bishop alone. According to Lance Henriksen, he suggested to James Cameron to have Hudson's hand put on top of his, to which Cameron agreed as Henriksen felt the scene needed something extra. This change was discussed with almost everyone, except Bill Paxton. Henriksen also remembers a long night of drinking after shooting this scene followed by a reshoot of the scene, as it looked too fake when they sped the footage up. He accidentally caught Paxton's pinky with the knife on this reshoot.
- #492
Contains a major spoiler — show
At one time during filming, the APC had an actual roof. But, during the "Fire In the hole" scene, the paint unexpectedly caught fire, which caused a real panic among the actors that was kept in the movie. Even worse, the fire melting the paint caused a smoke that was actually suffocating the actors. After a few tries, the roof of the APC was removed.
- #493
Contains a major spoiler — show
Bill Paxton was allowed to improvise his taunts directed at the Aliens during his final scene, but due to all the background noise, none of his original dialogue could be used. When he was called over to re-record his lines during post-production, the sound department and even Paxton himself had the greatest difficulty to make out what he was actually saying. They just had to cut around and make educated guesses to fill in the blanks.
- #494
Contains a major spoiler — show
When the set crews were looking around for floor grating to use on the Sulaco set design, they asked a local set design manufacturer/shop if they had anything of the sort. Indeed they did, an immense pile of old floor grating had been sitting out in the back of their shop for the last seven years. It was left there from when they tore down the set of Alien (1979).
- #495
Contains a major spoiler — show
According to Al Matthews (Apone), when James Remar was still cast in the role of Corporal Hicks, Remar was using a Ithaca Model 37 pump action shotgun (the same one that Michael Biehn can be seen using as Hicks in the film), and accidentally blew a hole in the set of Frank Oz' Little Shop of Horrors (1986) which was being shot on an adjacent stage to Aliens at Pinewood Studios. Matthews then said to Remar "Where the fuck did you get live ammo?"
- #496
Contains a major spoiler — show
The Queen violently impales Bishop with the dagger-like tip of her tail -- then lifts him up and rips him apart. Winston explained the complex effect: "the Bishop rip-apart was a multistep effect. At first he's just standing there and he gives a little jolt and for an instant you think maybe he's got a Chestburster inside him. Then the tail comes right through him from behind. The normal way to do that effect would be to put him on a slant board with a fake body, but we didn't want to do that. We wanted him to be standing in plain view and then suddenly have this thing shoot out of his chest. To do it, we made a slightly built-up chest plate for Lance Henriksen that allowed a flexible rubberized tail to be inserted and take a bend. So in the start position, the tail piece was lying flat inside the chest plate. It was then pulled up and out through his shirt by a wire that you couldn't see because of the way it was shot -- wires can be hidden. Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis developed that part of the effect. Then we did a switch. The next shot was a variation of the old arrow-through-the-head trick. John Richardson's crew built a harness that went through Lance's back. On the front side, there was a rigid tail piece that was the length we had pulled out in the previous shot. The back side connected to the Queen's actual tail. Lance's feet weren't in the frame, so we were able to put him on a teeterboard to lift him up. Jim set up the shot in such a way that it starts out tight on Lance with the tail sticking through his chest, then widens out to reveal that it is, in fact, an Alien tail that has come through from behind and finally follows that tail all the way up and into the drop-ship where the Queen is looming overhead. With her tail, the Queen lifts Bishop right up to where she is in the drop-ship. Her arms come out. One hand grabs the upper part of his body and the other hand grabs the lower half of his body and she literally rips him in two. Lance said they weren't paying him enough to do that shot, so we had to come up with a dummy rig." The two-part dummy that had to be ripped apart featured a spring-loaded armature that would "pop apart" and push the Queen's hands (which were put into slots) along with it, creating the illusion that they were actually tearing the android apart.
- #497
Contains a major spoiler — show
James Cameron clashed with cinematographer Dick Bush, who refused to light the Alien nest the way the director wanted. Cameron wanted dark lighting to create an eerie atmosphere, but Bush completely ignored his directions and kept using bright lighting to show off the intricacies of the set. Their disputes went on for so long that it became one of the reasons why production fell behind schedule. Finally, Cameron had Bush fired, which led to the crew walking out, requiring Gale Anne Hurd to coax them back once they had all cooled down. Adrian Biddle, who had been 1st AC (focus puller) on Alien (1979) was hired instead, and succeeded in shooting the scenes with as much of the built-in lighting as possible, as per Cameron's wishes.
- #498
Contains a major spoiler — show
The armored personnel carrier (APC) is a modified airplane tow-truck that British Airways used for towing airplanes around at Heathrow. The only trouble was that the truck they purchased weighed 75 tons. By stripping out most of the lead used in its construction, they were able to remove about 35 tons. It was still so heavy that the construction team had to reinforce several floors to carry the vehicle's weight.
- #499
- #500
Contains a major spoiler — show
A complicated effect shot (the Marines entering the Alien nest) had already been filmed just before James Remar was replaced by Michael Biehn. A re-shoot would be too expensive, because the original model had been heavily damaged during transport and couldn't be reused, so the Corporal Hicks seen with his back towards camera is still played by James Remar. The shot was cut just before Remar turned around.
- #501
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 51 mins) Lance Henriksen wanted to wear double-pupil contact lenses for a scene where Bishop is working in the lab on a microscope and gives a scary look at one of the Marines. He came to set with those lenses, but after a test, James Cameron decided he did not need to wear them because he was acting the character with just the right amount of creepiness already (Cameron later said that it made Bishop look scarier than the Aliens).
- #502
Contains a major spoiler — show
The various screens and displays, seen mostly in the backgrounds, are actually TV screens with a video running. The film was shot in the UK where televisions run at 25 frames per second, however, film is normally shot and projected at 24 frames per second! Filming the TV monitors at that speed would cause the TV screens to run out of sync with the film, so they would have flickered terribly. Instead, the shots containing the monitors were taken at 25 frames per second to keep the monitors in sync, so when these are then projected at the standard rate of 24 fps, they now run a bit slower than real-life.
- #503
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 9 mins) When Ripley is in front of the board at the start of the film, the seats they are all sat on are in fact automobile seats, they have the mounting points for the headrests and the levers for sliding forward to allow people to enter the back of the car, they are mounted on office chair posts to give them the look of office boardroom chairs.
- #504
- #505
- #506
- #507
Contains a major spoiler — show
The full-size queen puppet was actually too big to fit into the elevator. For the shot where she is seen there, her tail was removed, and yet the back of the elevator still had to be opened to accommodate the prop; smoke effects, dark lighting, and a black curtain at the back obscure this.
- #508
Contains a major spoiler — show
In an interview with Moviefone, Sigourney Weaver said that each time one of the actors was to "die" she would give them a bouquet of flowers before filming began. When it was time for Paul Reiser to be killed, she gave him a handful of dead blossoms. Carrie Henn received an engraved picture from Weaver after production wrapped.
- #509
Contains a major spoiler — show
The Power Loader was brought to life with a combination of a stunt man sitting in the loader behind Ripley moving the limbs, wires holding it up, and some miniature work. No electricity was used to power the prop. The scenes turned out so convincing that it fooled many businesses, because they wanted to buy Power Loaders as forklifts.
- #510
Contains a major spoiler — show
Armorer Terry English made three sets of armor for each member of the cast who needed to wear armor. He was only given two weeks to complete the job and upon arriving back at his workshop a few hours drive away from the film set, he realized he had forgotten the scrap of cloth James Cameron had given him so that the camouflage on the armor could be matched correctly to the uniforms the Marines would be wearing. Instead of going all the way back, English painted the completed sets of armor from memory. The result was a pattern and color combination not too dissimilar to the British Army DPM pattern. Fortunately, Cameron liked the contrast between the armor and the BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms) the Marines wore beneath it, saying it make the armor more obvious to the eye. The graffiti you see on some of the armor was done by the actors themselves, with a little help from English for a few details like Hicks' clasp and padlock on his chest armor. The armor was hand made from Aluminum and all in one size, with on set adjustments made by English to make them fit each actor.
- #511
- #512
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 17 mins) The movie's budget for production design was almost running out when it was time for constructing the set of the hypersleep chamber aboard the Sulaco. Each chamber cost over $4,300 to build, meaning that they could only afford to make four capsules. Production designer Peter Lamont had the difficult task of telling director James Cameron that they had to omit the entire scene, but he devised a trick: clever placement of mirrors and camera angles made it look like there were 12 chambers instead of four, allowing the scene to be filmed.
- #513
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 28 mins) The body mounts for Vasquez's and Drake's smart guns were taken from Steadicam gear. According to Mark Rolston and Jenette Goldstein, the smartguns were between 70 and 90 pounds, and were so heavy that the Velcro straps on their gear wouldn't stay fastened. James Cameron then decided that the crew should use duct-tape to tape the gear on Rolston and Goldstein. This also meant that they couldn't take toilet breaks once the gear was attached on them. Rolston and Goldstein later claimed that they were taped on the smartguns for so long that they even had dreams about it.
- #514
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 40 mins) In the air shaft where Vasquez shoots the alien with a handgun, Jenette Goldstein could not handle the recoil of the gun properly. As a result, producer Gale Anne Hurd doubled for Vasquez in shots where the gun is fired. She was the only woman available who had experience firing handguns. Goldstein's flinching at the firing of a gun is also masked during the operations room fight immediately preceding the air shaft scene, when Vasquez is seen firing two grenades at the aliens - for the first one, there's a barely visible cut (Goldstein's head changes position suddenly) and for the second shot there is a smash-cut away from her face at the moment of firing.
- #515
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 30 mins) When Newt and Ripley are locked in MedLab, Ripley is attacked by one of the two facehuggers after setting off the sprinklers, resulting in the facehugger scuttling towards her, jumping off a table leg and wrapping its tail around her neck. To film this, director James Cameron had the Special Effects crew design a facehugger that was basically a pull-toy, with a mechanism that moved its limbs in walking fashion while being pulled towards Ripley. To make it appear as if it jumps towards Ripley, Cameron set it up on the table leg, then filmed it while it was pulled backwards. He later edited the piece of film in reverse, to make the creature appear to be moving forward towards Ripley. The crew thought that the fact that water was falling down during this whole scene would affect the sequence when shown backwards (it would show the water moving up instead of down), but luckily, the water was not visible enough to see the direction in which it was falling.
- #516
Contains a major spoiler — show
For the scene where an Alien emerges behind Newt in the sewer, Carrie Henn was asked to scream loudly, which she did. In fact, the scream was so convincing that the crew feared they had emotionally scarred the young actress for life. However, afterwards, Henn assured them it was all acting; she had been talking with the stunt man in the Alien suit for a while prior to the scene, so his sudden appearance didn't frighten her at all.
- #517
Contains a major spoiler — show
Some of the more complicated special effects shots, such as the crash of the first dropship and Ripley and Newt standing on the platform just before they are picked up by Bishop, were done with an old technique called process photography. Basically, this involves filming the actors in front of a large screen upon which the preferred background is projected (usually pre-filmed special effects footage). It is usually done when filming the background for real would be impractical, too costly or impossible. Process shots had been used extensively since the 1940s to depict people in moving vehicles, but had been all but abandoned by the 1980s because the movements of the backgrounds would often comically mismatch with the actors' movements in the foreground. However, James Cameron, who would later use process photography in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) as well, was praised for his ability to employ the old technique so convincingly, eschewing the use of bluescreen photography which was the norm then, before computer-generated imagery (CGI) would take over.
- #518
When the alien queen's tail pierces his chest, Lance Henriksen had to vomit a combination of milk, yogurt and cream, and he came down with a case of food poisoning from it. Special effects technician Alec Gillis had not realized that this lactose mixture, sitting under hot studio lights, would become a breeding ground for bacteria that smelled so bad after three days of shooting that most crew members avoided going near Henriksen (who reportedly tolerated the smell and never complained once). The special effects team on the first Alien (1979) had deliberately chosen not to use milk for Ash's "death" scene (in which he also vomits a milky substance from his mouth) because they had realized a milk-based fluid would curdle under hot lights (see also the Alien entry). Gillis said he apologized to Henriksen for making him ill, but Henriksen forgave him, noting that he would use the feeling in his performance.
- #519
When 20th Century Fox executives saw an early cut of the film, they complained to producer Gale Anne Hurd that the money appeared to have been spent on sets rather than special effects. Hurd took great pleasure in telling the executives that most of the sets they had seen in the film were actually miniatures or optical effects (i.e. special effects). The artists behind these images were delighted that their work had fooled the money men.
- #520
Bringing the alien queen to life required between 14 and 16 operators, because the head, neck, body, legs, face, lips, jaws and tongue all had to move independently. Stan Winston built a mold out of fiberglass and foam, which was then covered with black garbage bags and carried inside by two puppeteers. Director James Cameron was made to shoot a test video with his own camera as proof to the studio that a creature this large was possible. The test was so successful that the 'garbage bag test' is now an industry term for testing a prototype special effect. The fully built animatronic creature was so convincing that Steven Spielberg later tasked Winston with building the fully animatronic T-Rex for Jurassic Park (1993).
- #521
The Power Loader was brought to life through a combination of a stuntman sitting in the loader behind Ripley moving its limbs, wires holding it upright, and some miniature work. No electricity was used to operate the machine. The scenes came out so convincingly that they fooled many businesses, which wanted to buy Power Loaders as forklifts.
- #522
At roughly 28 minutes in, the body mounts for Vasquez and Drake's smart guns were taken from Steadicam rigs. According to Mark Rolston and Jenette Goldstein, the smart guns weighed between 70 and 90 pounds and were so heavy that the Velcro straps on their rigs would not stay fastened. James Cameron then decided that the crew had to use duct tape to tape Rolston and Goldstein's equipment in place. This also meant they could not take bathroom breaks once the gear was attached. Rolston and Goldstein later claimed they were taped to the smart guns for so long that they even dreamed about it.
- #523
- #524
- #525
When the alien queen's tail pierced his chest, Lance Henriksen got food poisoning from the mixture of milk, yogurt and cream he had to vomit. The lactose mixture, waiting under the hot studio lights, bred bacteria; after three days it smelled so bad that the crew couldn't get near Henriksen. He never complained. The crew on the first Alien film had not used milk in Ash's death scene because they knew it would spoil. Special effects artist Alec Gillis apologized; Henriksen forgave him and said he would use that feeling in his performance.
- #526
When Fox executives watched the early cut, they thought the money had gone more into sets than into special effects. Producer Gale Anne Hurd took pleasure in telling them that most of the sets they saw were miniatures or optical effects. The artists were pleased that their work had fooled the money men.
- #527
- #528
The budget was nearly exhausted and the hypersleep chamber set was to be built. Each capsule cost over $4,300, so only four could be made. Production designer Peter Lamont had to tell James Cameron that they had to cut the scene, but he saved it by using mirrors and camera angles to make four capsules look like 12.
- #529
- #530
- #531
- #532
It took 14 to 16 operators to portray the alien queen because the head, neck, body, legs, face, lips, jaws and tongue moved independently. Stan Winston made a mold out of fiberglass and foam and covered it with black garbage bags; inside were two puppeteers. James Cameron shot a test video with his own camera to prove to the studio that such a creature was possible. The test was so successful that the 'garbage bag test' became a term in the industry. The full animatronic creature was so convincing that Steven Spielberg tasked Winston with building the T-Rex for Jurassic Park (1993).
- #533
- #534
According to Lance Henriksen, Full Metal Jacket (1987) was also being shot nearby during the production of Aliens. The crews often got together at parties. Both films deal with the US Marine Corps, and each cast had a Vietnam veteran (R. Lee Ermey and Al Matthews). Both played sergeants who used the phrase 'assholes and elbows.' Coincidentally, both actors died in 2018.
- #535
- #536
- #537
In the first Alien film, Bolaji Badejo, who was 2.13 meters tall, was used to portray the alien. Since this film required many aliens, stunt performers 1.83 meters tall were hired, and they would rarely appear in the same frame as humans. In some shots, remote-controlled puppets with thin arms and legs were used to avoid the 'man in a suit' look. Some were filled with two chemicals that mixed when pierced by bullets, creating smoke that simulated acid burns. Only six costumes were used at any one time; most were a few pieces of latex worn over black tights. The image of hundreds of aliens was achieved through clever editing, lighting and liquid.
- #538
The body mounts for Vasquez and Drake's smart guns were taken from Steadicam equipment. The guns weighed 70 to 90 pounds and the Velcro straps wouldn't hold. James Cameron decided the crew should use duct tape. This meant they couldn't take bathroom breaks. Rolston and Goldstein claimed they were taped up for so long that they dreamed about it.
- #539
According to Al Matthews, while James Remar was still in the role of Hicks, he was using an Ithaca Model 37 pump-action shotgun and accidentally put a hole in the set of Little Shop of Horrors (1986), which was being shot next to Aliens at Pinewood Studios. Matthews said, 'Where did you get live ammunition?'
- #540
- #541
- #542
Armourer Terry English was given only two weeks to build three sets of armour for each actor. When he returned to his workshop, he realised he had forgotten the fabric he needed for the camouflage. Rather than go back, he painted the armour from memory. The result did not resemble the British Army DPM pattern. Fortunately, Cameron liked the contrast between the armour and the BDUs and made the armour more distinct. The graffiti on the armour was done by the actors; English helped with details such as the buckle and padlock on Hicks's chest armour. The armour was handmade from aluminium and was one-size-fits-all; on set it was adjusted to fit each actor.
- #543
After Ripley sets off the sprinklers in the MedLab, she is attacked by a facehugger. The creature leaps from the table leg, wraps its tail around her neck and crawls towards her. James Cameron had a special facehugger designed for this scene: the mechanism worked like a pull toy, with its limbs set to make a walking motion. To make the creature appear to leap, Cameron placed it on the table leg and pulled it backwards, then played the film in reverse. The water falling downwards could have been a problem in reverse playback, but fortunately the water was not visible.
- #544
- #545
James Cameron fell out with cinematographer Dick Bush. Bush refused the dark lighting Cameron wanted and insisted on shooting the set with bright light. This conflict caused delays in the production. Cameron eventually had Bush fired; this led to the crew walking out. Gale Anne Hurd persuaded them to return once everyone had calmed down. Adrian Biddle, who had been a focus puller on Alien, was brought in as his replacement and, as Cameron wanted, shot with as much practical lighting as possible.
- #546
Composer James Horner said that James Cameron gave him very little time and that he therefore had to use elements from his scores for Star Trek II and III. He also adapted the 'Gayane Ballet Suite' for the main and end titles. Tensions in post-production were so high that Horner thought he would never work with Cameron again. However, when Cameron liked the music for Braveheart, the two agreed to work together on Titanic. They won an Oscar with Titanic and collaborated again on Avatar.
- #547
James Cameron was not satisfied with Ray Lovejoy's editing and considered firing him and having the film re-edited by Mark Goldblatt and Peter Boita. Lovejoy was used to the slow pace of 2001: A Space Odyssey and had edited this film the same way. When he heard he was going to lose his job, he shut himself in the editing room over the weekend and presented a fully edited version of the final battle. Cameron was impressed and allowed Lovejoy to stay. Lovejoy was nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing.
- #548
The Acton Lane Power Station in West London was used for the alien nest. The location contained excessive asbestos; a cleaning crew was sent in and air quality was measured continuously throughout the shoot. By chance, the air was cleaner than at Pinewood Studios. However, during the nest scenes shot in the winter months, the set was freezing even though the characters say it is hot inside. Gel was constantly applied to the actors' faces to make them sweat.
- #549
- #550
The actors playing the Marines went through two weeks of tough boot camp training before filming. The training was run by former S.A.S. soldier Tip Tipping (Private Crowe) and former Marine sergeant Al Matthews (Apone). Sigourney Weaver, Paul Reiser and William Hope did not take part in the training; Cameron thought this would create a disconnect between the characters and the team. Michael Biehn also did not take part because he replaced James Remar after filming had begun.
- #551
For the scene in which the Queen impales Bishop with her tail, Stan Winston and James Cameron designed an effect in full view in which the tail pierces Bishop's chest while he is standing. Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis made Lance Henriksen a chest plate containing a flexible rubber tail; the tail was pulled with a wire to create the impaling effect. In the next shot, Henriksen wore a harness with a rigid tail piece at the front; the rear end was attached to the Queen puppet. Henriksen stood on a see-saw so that his feet would remain out of frame. For the scene in which the Queen tears him in two, Woodruff and Gillis made a puppet carrying Henriksen's expression. Richardson placed a spring-loaded skeleton inside the puppet. The Queen's hands went into slots in the puppet and the separation was achieved with a spring-loaded motion. The upper half that falls to the ground, while grabbing Newt, was a upper-torso puppet made by Woodruff and Gillis that sprayed organic intestines and a milky substance. Henriksen's head and arms extended through a hole in the set floor. Lindsay Macgowan recalls that Henriksen shot in this rig for two or three days and that the stench from the milk spoiling was unbearable, but that Henriksen never complained.
- #552
The film was shot mostly under a bluish light to create a strange and alien atmosphere. The colours of the Marines' camouflage uniforms and the Humbrol 'Brown Bess' paint on the pulse rifles were chosen to be compatible with this blue lighting. In natural light these colours look very different from how they appear on screen.
- #553
- #554
- #555
- #556
- #557
- #558
- #559
The facehuggers kept by the colonists were stored in water-filled jars to guard against the risk of acid secretion; the acid would be diluted by the water and the jar would be prevented from bursting. While Bishop says the acid of dead creatures is neutralized, the original Alien script had a scene where a dead facehugger immediately decomposed and leaked copious acid.
- #560
- #561
In the scene where Vasquez shoots a creature in the ventilation shaft, Jenette Goldstein couldn't control the weapon's recoil. Producer Gale Anne Hurd served as a stunt double in the shots where the weapon was fired. Goldstein's flinch was also masked in the fight in the operations room; in the scene where she throws a grenade, it was hidden with cuts.
- #562
The model of the abandoned alien ship is the same one used in the first film. Fox had given the model to Bob Burns; this prop, which sat in Burns's driveway, was loaned out for its brief appearance in the film. The model had been battered over the years, which was fortunate because the ship needed to be damaged. Due to its fragility, it was not sent to the UK; it was shot in the US and returned to Burns. Burns later sent the ship to a collector to have it restored, but the ship was taken and sold at auction. Its current whereabouts are unknown.
- #563
- #564
- #565
- #566
The screens in the background are actually TVs playing video. Because the film was shot in the UK, the TVs run at 25 fps while the film is 24 fps; to achieve synchronization, the shots with monitors were filmed at 25 fps, which caused the images to appear slightly slow when projected at 24 fps.
- #567
- #568
- #569
- #570
- #571
- #572
- #573
- #574
- #575
- #576
Two Queen heads were made: one solid and durable, the other lightweight. Both contained hydraulic and cable controls; the heavy hero head had a working inner jaw and the ability to tilt. Two stunt performers inside the puppet controlled four arms; one of them, Nick Gillard, later played a prisoner in Alien³. The legs were puppets, and 14-16 external crew members were needed to operate the entire structure. The Queen was the largest and most complex puppet made up to that time.
- #577
- #578
- #579
James Cameron wanted to shoot the film in 2.35:1 but hated anamorphic lenses. Super 35 was ruled out on the grounds that it was too grainy, and the film was shot in 1.85 with regular 35 mm. Ironically, the film ended up with one of the grainiest 70 mm transfers, and Cameron said he wished he had shot in a wider frame. He shot all his subsequent films in Super 35 and became regarded as the gold standard for the process. In the 4K restoration, grain was reduced using AI-assisted technology, which led to controversy.
- #580
- #581
Composer James Horner was unhappy with how the film's music was handled, despite receiving his first Oscar nomination. Because the music did not match the edited film, Cameron had to break up the score and use Goldsmith's Alien music in some places. Horner's original score was later released as a Deluxe Edition soundtrack.
- #582
Process photography was used for complex special effects shots (the drop ship's first descent, Ripley and Newt standing on the platform). The actors were filmed in front of a screen onto which a pre-shot background was projected. This technique, in use since the 1940s, had been almost abandoned by the 1980s, but Cameron was praised for using this old technique convincingly while avoiding blue screen.
- #583
- #584
Carrie Henn's least favorite scene was the moment Newt is trapped in the nest. For every take she had to crawl through a hole to get into her cocoon; the secretions that look hard on screen were actually made of fragile fiberglass and could not be remade if they broke. Henn therefore had to appear tightly wrapped in the ropes without putting her weight on them, which made the scene quite exhausting and frustrating.
- #585
The xenomorph head in the first film had a layer of translucent jelly over it to make it look smooth. When James Cameron saw the heads without the jelly, he thought the ridges were more interesting and did not use the jelly; moreover, the harsh lighting on set would not have lit the dome properly anyway. This difference between the two films led to fan theories: some believed the ridged xenomorphs were older and had lost the jelly through a natural maturation process; others believed they were a specially bred warrior caste meant to protect the Queen. Cameron explained it as the creatures being a slightly mutated version of the original.
- #586
- #587
- #588
James Horner's schedule allowed him only 7 weeks to work on the film. When he arrived in London, he found the film was still shooting and not yet edited; he waited 3 weeks to begin. By the time he started, only 2 weeks remained before the planned recording session. He wrote his final piece in one night and recorded it on the last day of the recording session. After Horner left for another film, additional music had to be added.
- #589
In the scene where the marines go to the nest in the APC, James Cameron told Carrie Henn to whisper something to her doll Casey. Later, when additional dialogue was being recorded and Henn was asked to repeat her lines, she admitted she had actually whispered something like 'This is stupid, why am I talking to a doll?'. The recording team had her say 'It's okay, don't worry, everything's going to be fine', and this matched her mouth movements well enough. Henn never told Cameron about this.
- #590
For the scene where Newt appears behind an Alien in the sewer, Carrie Henn was asked to scream loudly and she did. The scream was so convincing that the crew feared they had emotionally traumatized the young actress. However, Henn later assured them it was entirely acting; before the scene she had spent some time talking with the stunt performer in the Alien costume, so its sudden appearance had not frightened her at all.
- #591
Most of the British crew members stopped working at certain times for contractually agreed tea breaks. Carrie Henn remembered these breaks as her favorite moments of the day, while the non-British actors, the crew and especially director James Cameron were annoyed by them because they slowed the production down unnecessarily. One day, the complex choreography of the colony scene before the Alien infestation had been prepared, and just as Cameron was about to begin, he noticed that every crew member was queuing up to get food from the tea lady; this took so long that he could have shot at least two takes. Cameron also got in line, asked how much the entire trolley would cost him, paid the tea lady, and then tipped the trolley over. After a long silence, he told the crew that from then on, instead of everyone going one by one, each department head should get snacks for the whole group, otherwise he would move the production elsewhere and they would all be out of work. Cameron later joked that he still planned to find the tea lady or her relatives and apologize.
- #592
While filming on the shuttle set that carries the marines to LV-426, the ceiling collapsed when the controls began shaking the set to simulate the shuttle's landing. A large piece of the set hit James Cameron on the head, causing the director to bleed. Lance Henriksen asked, 'Do you think they did that on purpose?'
- #593
This film is the second of two franchises in which James Horner scored the sequel to a first film scored by Jerry Goldsmith. The other is the Star Trek franchise, in which Goldsmith scored Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and Horner scored Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Both franchises began in 1979.
- #594
- #595
- #596
The Queen was brought to life through a combination of a full-size animatronic model and small-scale miniatures. The full-size Queen, built by Stan Winston's team, used a combination of stunt performers placed inside and external manipulation; this innovative approach was devised by James Cameron. The concept was first tested in the parking lot of Winston's Los Angeles studio with a rough mock-up covered in black garbage bags (affectionately dubbed the 'Garbage Bag Queen' by the team). The final full-size puppet was built in England and mounted on a large crane; thanks to clever editing, it never appears in the film. Although only a body shell was used for most of the shooting, a second puppet with a different mechanism for enclosing the stunt performers inside was built for shots in which the Queen is seen from behind.
- #597
- #598
- #599
The Alien Queen was initially planned to be done with stop motion, but James Cameron wanted it all done live. Stan Winston stated that the Queen seen in the final battle (or, in his words, 'the largest puppet in cinema history') was brought to life using rod puppets, hydraulics, radio controls and cables. Because the full-size Queen could only be moved slowly, these scenes were shot at a lower frame rate and Sigourney Weaver also had to move much more slowly; when played back at normal speed, the Queen's movements would speed up accordingly. For some wide shots in the final battle, detailed miniatures of the Queen and Ripley in the Power Loader were used. While shooting the shot in which the Power Loader is ejected from the airlock, a piece of cloth was held underneath to catch the expensive miniature; unfortunately it tore through the cloth and fell to the floor, and it had to be quickly glued back together for additional shots.
- #600
- #601
- #602
James Cameron stated that he does not much care for the anamorphic widescreen format, and cited the problems he experienced while working on visual effects on Escape from New York (1981) as the catalyst for this dislike. His only regret about the film is that he did not shoot it in widescreen to be more consistent with Ridley Scott's look in Alien (1979); he still thinks Scott's film looks better. Cameron also thinks the Facehuggers in the first film look better than those in this film.
- #603
- #604
Aliens is the only film in the series for which Stan Winston won his first Oscar for special effects. Winston was assisted by Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr.; Woodruff had a brief, uncredited role as one of the rescue team in the opening scene. On Alien³ and Alien: Resurrection, the effects passed to Gillis and Woodruff, who founded their own company Amalgamated Dynamics Inc.; Woodruff played the Aliens in both films.
- #605
- #606
The adult creature design was largely preserved, but some changes were made. The most obvious difference is the ridges on the head that existed in the original but were covered with a layer of gel for a smooth appearance. Other differences: a different ridge and bone pattern on the neck, a longer and more slender body with two extra ribs, limbs with a more pronounced bone pattern, three fingers instead of five on the hand, and redesigned feet. Two small arms were also added to the chestburster.
- #607
- #608
- #609
- #610
Miniatures were used alongside the full-size puppet in the Queen's fight with the Power Loader and the egg-laying organ in the nest. The miniatures were made by Shane Mahan, Alec Gillis, John Rosengrant and Shawn McEnroe. Gillis said the live-action and miniature shots were blended so seamlessly that at the premiere he could not tell which was which.
- #611
Stan Winston, inspired by the Alien Queen concept, looked for ways to hide two performers inside a single costume. "I wanted to create an alien that didn't look like a man in a suit," he said. "So I came up with the idea of putting a small person on the back of a large man who would stand up and walk backwards."
- #612
The first cinematographer was Dick Bush, but James Cameron was unhappy with his lighting and fired him after a month. Cameron tried to hire Derek Vanlint, Ridley Scott's cinematographer on Alien, but Vanlint was not interested; instead, he recommended Adrian Biddle, who had previously worked on Alien as a focus puller but had never served as DP. Biddle later worked with Scott on Thelma & Louise and 1492: Conquest of Paradise.
- #613
In the script, the Sulaco was described as "a steel mountain following metal towers... ugly, battered, functional." Syd Mead initially designed a large, circular ship, but Cameron wanted something longer. Cameron drew a sketch resembling a large unrifled rifle used by marines, and Mead used it as the basis for the redesign. Only one side of the model was completed, saving money.
- #614
When James Cameron reunited with his The Terminator collaborator Stan Winston for Aliens, their goal was to stay faithful to H.R. Giger's biomechanical aesthetic while pushing it forward: the Chestburster would have arms, the Drones' skulls would be more bony, and an entirely new character would be designed: the Alien Queen. And her face "had to be perfect."
- #615
- #616
- #617
- #618
- #619
In the extended version, when the Colonial Marines first call the complex, there is no trace other than battle damage. However, when Hicks detects an object on the motion detector and waits with Vasquez outside the colony rooms, a bloody or dusty handprint is seen on the door; this is the only blood trace seen in the complex.
- #620
- #621
In contrast to the slow-moving terror of Ridley Scott's original Alien, James Cameron made the xenomorphs fast, active and dynamic. Stan Winston Studios loaded the cables and controls onto a cart to make the cable-controlled puppets more maneuverable, so the puppets could be repositioned quickly. Different Alien versions were made for Cameron's vision: puppets with an articulated upper body, mechanical lips and jaw for close-ups; lightweight black tights worn by stunt performers for action scenes; and poseable figures for dangerous scenes.
- #622
The cast remembers the intensity of the production and Cameron's hands-on style. Lance Henriksen says that at one point the production faced a threat of moving elsewhere because the union was not used to Cameron's fast-paced way of working. Bill Paxton notes that Cameron moved lights and cut holes in walls when necessary, which was not really appropriate on a union set.
- #623
- #624
In an early dream sequence showing Ripley's nightmare, the Chestburster is seen being pushed out of her chest. Winston found this effect particularly effective because those who saw the first film know exactly what it is, yet the creature never bursts out. Sigourney Weaver was on an inclined board under the bed, with a spare body rig above her and an operator below pushing the Chestburster upward. Tom Woodruff was largely responsible for this effect.
- #625
- #626
The special effects team had painted one of the Alien costumes in bluish tones, but when Cameron saw the costume on set he did not like the color. Despite the team's objections, he insisted on making the costume pitch black because the Aliens needed to blend into the black hive. He painted it black himself while the performer was still inside the costume.
- #627
Cameron stated that the Power Loader fight between the Queen and Ripley was the combination of the best live-action animatronic and miniature shots of its time. He said that if it had been CGI the fight would have been more dynamic, but that with traditional effects they had to use short shots to hide the behind-the-scenes work, which made the scene more tense and atmospheric. He added that the scene would not work without Weaver's natural reactions to the monster.
- #628
The Queen Alien was played by Stuart St Paul and Malcolm Weaver; they were the only two people Cameron would put inside the queen. The real Queen was built around them, and they were strapped in back to back. Neck muscles moved the head, their feet operated a pedal to swing the tail, and the arms and wrists were worked like a puppet. They wore headsets and took instructions from Cameron. They were strapped in at the start of the day, released for lunch, and not strapped in again until the end of the day. Bathroom breaks were very rare.
- #629
- #630
In the scene where the hive is introduced, the camera slides down the ceiling of the colony structure, which is coated in a resinous material. The sequence uses a hanging miniature designed by Robert and Dennis Skotak, combined with forced perspective. The miniature was 10 feet tall and 12 feet wide and had to be blended with the full-size hive set behind it. Cameron decided to shoot the sequence in fog, so less steam was used on the miniature. Dennis Skotak said the blend was instantaneous and that they were constantly on alert to catch the moment when everything looked right.
- #631
The Alien Eggs underwent cosmetic changes, such as the petals moving downward along their full length. Rick Lazzarini designed the hero animatronic. Winston Studio also built background eggs and miniature eggs. The role of the Chestburster was expanded; it could now run on its eight legs and leap again if it missed on the first lunge. The design was partly changed, with its lower portion inspired by Giger's paintings. Cameron said he wanted to preserve Giger's sexual undertone. Winston noted that the new Chestburster was more organic, that nails were added to its fingertips, and that the tail was extended by six inches.
- #632
One of the Chestburster animatronics was designed to run along the ground. Winston said they initially started with the idea of a pull toy, but that Cameron was inspired by the wire-guided fish idea from Piranha II. In the end, the Chestburster was on a wire that wrapped around an internally rubber-coated gear and was kept taut by two operators. When pulled along the wire, the gear moved the legs. If pulled quickly, the legs moved quickly; if pulled slowly, they moved slowly. Lazzarini added that if the front operator moved the cable quickly up and down, the Chestburster could jump.
- #633
The nest was built as a giant makeup for the Power Station set. It was carved from clay in various components and molded in latex and fiberglass. Production designer Peter Lamont said they took two casts a day, that there were hundreds of pieces, and that they spent three weeks placing the pieces. Most of the colonists inside the cocoons were sculpted dummies whose faces were taken from the actors.
- #634
In the Med Lab scene, the two Facehuggers in the still tubes are still alive. The models were controlled by cables. Winston said that for the creature, which had to be operated underwater, they tried methods such as air pressure and water pressure, but that in the end Ray Lowell came up with a cable-operated spring-loaded tail. When the cable was pulled, the tail curled; when released, it snapped open like a whip.
- #635
Alec Gillis sculpted the Facehugger using the original models as reference; Lance Anderson designed the internal mechanisms. Several different Facehuggers were built according to the requirements of the scenes. The new Facehuggers had foam latex skin. For the autopsy sequence, a dead Facehugger was designed with real organic innards, including chicken skin.
- #636
Cameron wanted the Queen to move away from the dinosaur image and be inspired by arthropods. He described the Queen as a mixture of Giger's work and his own vision: big, strong, scary, fast and female, like a black widow spider. The full-size animatronic Queen was suspended from a cable rig and controlled by two puppeteers. Winston was initially skeptical, but remained faithful to Cameron's design. Some of Winston's features, such as the double-jointed leg look, were incorporated into the final design. The Queen's head included a front section that could move independently of the crown and be retracted into it while at rest. The Queen appeared attached to an egg sac; this was inspired by queen termites.
- #637
For the Queen's acid blood, the team resorted to the polystyrene approach. Richardson said they used carbon tetrachloride instead of acetone and mixed it with chemicals such as paint and soap so that it smoked and foamed as it dissolved. They also added metallic powder to the surface of the polystyrene to achieve a look similar to molten metal.
- #638
The scene in which the Queen impales and tears apart Bishop with her dagger-like tail tip was a multi-stage effect. First, a slightly raised chest plate was made for Lance Henriksen, and a flexible rubber tail was placed inside it. The tail was pulled up through his shirt by an unseen wire. Then, in a transition, a harness running through Lance's back was used, and the tail was connected to the Queen's real tail. Lance was placed on a seesaw and lifted. The two-part dummy had a spring-loaded skeleton, and the Queen's hands appeared to genuinely tear the android apart.
- #639
Cameron brought drawings to the preliminary design meetings at Stan Winston Studio of an Alien Queen with a huge four-armed insectoid body and an 'elegant' crown-like head with a retractable face, filled with dagger-sized translucent teeth. After exchanging sketches with Winston, they arrived at the final design. The design was sculpted at 1/4 scale, and after approval the full-size version was sculpted in WED clay at Pinewood Studios.
- #640
When the film first aired on ITV in the UK in 1990, all the profanity was dubbed by unknown voice actors. For example, Hudson's line "The Sarge is gone! Get out of here!" was kept exactly as it was, while Ripley's line "You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage" was broadcast unchanged.
- #641
- #642
A fully articulated hero model was used for the Facehugger released by Burke in the Med Lab. Winston said the model required about nine operators. Another model without the tongue element was built for the scenes where it crawls across the table. A third model, with only finger joints, was used for its rapid movement along the wall. In addition, limp models with loose fingers were made and blown into the air. Cameron said these simple methods worked for quick cuts.
- #643
The original Alien costumes were detailed but impractical; they could not perform the fast, agile movements Ridley Scott wanted. To avoid the same problem, Cameron and Winston redesigned the costumes with a focus on movement. Cameron said, "I thought fast, blurry, lizard-like or insect-like scurrying was more important than sculptural detail." Winston added: "Jim wanted the men inside the costumes to move strangely and oddly, not like humans. To achieve that, we removed the rubber suit entirely and added light foam pieces over black tights. Dry, they looked like just black tights, but on film, wet and slimy, they were indistinguishable from the original and allowed complete freedom of movement." The film's lighting and angles also contributed to this illusion.
- #644
After James Cameron determined the Queen's appearance, he detailed the structure of the full-size animatronic and its transferability to the screen with Stan Winston. Winston conducted a test with a "garbage bag" mock-up: "We rented a crane, built a wooden platform to carry two stunt performers, and created a rough Queen mock-up with black foam and plastic garbage bags. We used ski poles for the arms. We tested it in a parking lot and it worked; of course, it needed fine-tuning."
- #645
The Queen's head had a wide range of motion, and two versions were made: a durable fighting head and a lighter, finely tuned "hero" head. In addition to hydraulic controls, the hero head had a cable-operated tongue mechanism and the ability to tilt. The face could move independently of the head; in its first appearance, it extended outward like a turtle emerging from its shell. There was also a face that could rotate 360 degrees, cable-controlled jaws, and snarling lips.
- #646
James Cameron is said to have shown "no mercy" to his small-scale Queen puppet. According to Phil Notaro, while the puppeteers repeatedly slammed the puppet hard into sliding doors, Cameron would say "that's how you do it" and hit it three times harder than anyone else. Fortunately, the Queen was durable; although there were slips in the mechanisms, they were corrected with constant adjustments. There was also constant maintenance for scenes where it needed to look battered one day and brand new the next.
- #647
- #648
- #649
Construction of the full-size animatronic Queen began with the internal skeleton and a structure that would carry two stunt performers. The stunt performers were Nick Gillard and Malcolm Weaver. Winston said, "First we built the inner body: fiberglass shells to carry the stunt performers and an aluminum plate to carry the hydraulics. This determined the Queen's size." The support structure was built by Rick Lazzarini and Wayne Sturm, then sent to London. A workshop was set up at Pinewood, and separate skeletons were built for the legs, arms, body, head and tail.
- #650
The first section built was the tail. Winston said, "The simplest skeleton was for the tail, so I made that first. It was a good start to see my team's strengths and weaknesses." The tail sculpture was made by Steve Norrington, John Robertson, Christine Overs and Philomena Davis; the internal mechanisms were designed by Ray Lovell and Richard Landon. The body was designed to accommodate two stunt performers; foam human figures were placed inside and a wire mesh skeleton was built around them. Welded steel skeletons were made for the head, arms and legs. The Queen's skin was cast in polyurethane foam to reduce weight; hard parts such as the crown were fiberglass. The puppet was supported in most scenes by a crane arm, either with wires or a bracket. Winston said, "Wires were for shots where the whole body was visible; the bracket was used in shots that did not show below the knees. The bracket came out of its back and connected to the crane arm at the pivot point, and was almost invisible." Two rotation devices provided forward-backward tilting and neck movement. Trevor Butterfield designed the hydraulic mechanisms.
- #651
The Queen's arms had to be light and highly maneuverable. Winston said, "It was critical that the large arms be light. The stunt performers' arms only extended to the elbows; forearm and hand movement was controlled at the wrist. We used a ski pole arrangement; the hands could be positioned or left hanging. On the fighting arms, ski poles were foamed directly onto the forearm, which was durable. We also had very light, vacuum-formed shell arms, but they were fragile. Additional arms were made for places requiring dexterity, such as the scenes where it grabs Newt. Designed by Ray Lovell, these arms had fully articulated fingers controlled by cables from external operators. For the legs, Steve Norrington and Richard Landon designed two versions: one with full legs operated as a puppet with wires, and another with no foam below the calf, used for close-ups.
- #652
Internal stunt performers contributed to the Queen's lower-body and tail movement. Winston said, 'There was an up-and-down hydraulic movement at the base of the tail; side-to-side movements were achieved by pressure the stunt performers applied to foot plates. This made the hips move from side to side. The outer tip of the tail was usually controlled by two or three wires.'
- #653
Although James Cameron planned to use the full-scale Queen in most scenes, he decided to use a quarter-scale puppet for some movements. Stop-motion was initially considered but abandoned for budget and practical reasons. Cameron said, 'Stop-motion would have created a stroboscopic effect in fast action. A rod-and-cable puppet seemed more appealing.' Doug Beswick was hired because he had previously worked on Terminatör. The puppet was about 90 cm tall and was supported by a pole. Rods attached to its feet passed through slots in the floor. The Queen's slender design made the mechanical system difficult; Phil Notaro said, 'The ribcage was very narrow, we had to pass 49 cables through a 3.8 cm hole. The arms were only 1.9 cm in diameter but each had nine functions. We constantly tried to persuade Jim to simplify, but he stayed faithful to the design.' In the end the puppet was fully articulated; the head, face, jaws, tongue, arms, fingers, back spines and tail could all move.
- #654
To reduce the number of puppeteers, Notaro designed coordinated cable functions controlled by a single joystick. 'The head, neck and face functions were connected to a single set of joysticks, so that one operator could control the character's expression. This provided more organic movement.' The Queen's 49 cables were managed by a ten-joystick system operated by five puppeteers; there were also four assistants: two supported the Queen from above, two moved the legs from below. At times the Queen was also filmed upside down.
- #655
The full-scale puppet was used in the scene where the Queen descends from the dropship after tearing Bishop apart. Winston said, 'We ran wires from the pivot point on its back to the ship and to the top of the set. Stunt performers inside operated the arms; at the side we lowered the Queen down the ramp with wires. Wires attached to the knees and ankles controlled the legs. The tail was also opened with wires. Jim had multiple cameras and we did the shot many times, but it was worth it.'
Characters & Cast (94)
- #656
- #657
- #658
- #659
Speaking later about the casting of Jenette Goldstein as Vasquez, Cameron acknowledged the controversy, saying: "We would get crucified if we did that today." He explained that Goldstein was part of the British acting union Equity at the time, and that filming in England meant casting largely from that pool. He also recalled the visual transformation required for the role: "Right, here comes this fair-skinned, freckled, blue-eyed Jewish girl from Beverly Hills. Yeah, that's Vasquez – it's obvious!... Some body make-up, some brown contacts, dye your hair black, you'll be great!"
- #660
- #661
Daniel Kash said that because he doesn't have a natural kind of coolness, he wore a very funky coat to his audition for the part of Pvt. Spunkmeyer (who was named after Otis Spunkmeyer cookies). Kash thought that he was in trouble when he met Al Matthews in the audition room, an ex-marine with an excess of coolness. However, afterwards, director James Cameron approached Kash and told him that the part was his, in exchange for his funky coat, which he happily parted with.
- #662
Bishop was almost scarier than the aliens, according to Lance Henriksen "I thought maybe when Bishop got alerted to something, two pupils would appear in his eyes, and I had some contact lenses made up. When Jim saw the dailies he said 'Jesus, we can't use that. You're more frightening than the Alien!"
- #663
Michael Biehn later said that he almost never got to play heroic characters like Corporal Dwayne Hicks, saying that people who look at him must see something wicked in his eyes and assume there's something wrong with him. Coincidence or not, in The Abyss (1989), his next film with James Cameron, he was cast as the villain.
- #664
Sigourney Weaver and James Cameron had a long debate about whether or not Ripley hated the alien. Cameron believed she did, but the actress has apprehensions. He felt the film was a straight-forward, revenge story, and sold Weaver on the idea by telling her Ripley would do anything in her power to keep what happened to her from happening to anyone else.
- #665
Sigourney Weaver had several notes for James Cameron after having read his script, which were mostly about how she felt Ripley should respond to her situations, which he was happy to accommodate. Cameron praised her for never taking issue with the direction he wanted to take with the story, even with the points they couldn't agree on. One of them was the amount of gun violence; Weaver had initially focused on the script's dialogue rather than stage directions, so when she arrived on set, she told Cameron that as an advocate for gun control, she was uncomfortable with all the shooting. Cameron felt that this was perfect for Ripley, who is equally reluctant to use a gun unless forced to, and told Weaver to bring that attitude to her performance. He also took her to a gun range to try and fire an automatic gun, which she had to admit was pretty cool.
- #666
- #667
According to James Cameron, Lance Henriksen likes to have a physical trademark to add to each of the characters he plays. His idea for Bishop was for the android to have two pupils in each eye. Henriksen himself created the lenses he would wear, but Cameron felt it was too much for the character.
- #668
- #669
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 13 mins) Although it is probably her most memorable line in the film, Carrie Henn has said that she hates the line "They mostly come at night. Mostly." Her friends still occasionally tease her about it and mock her delivery with various derivatives.
- #670
- #671
- #672
Contains a major spoiler — show
Vasquez's appearance and demeanor has caused speculation in regards to her sexuality. Jenette Goldstein, the actress who portrays Vasquez has made comments that she considers Vasquez to be an outsider, commenting, "With Vasquez, I never said she was straight or gay because to her it was nobody's business."
- #673
Contains a major spoiler — show
Ricco Ross said that director James Cameron named his character Frost, as he thought it would be ironic given that he is set on fire with a flamethrower. Ross was a little concerned that Frost would be the typical black character who is quickly dispatched early in the movie, but relented when Cameron told him how the death would play out (set on fire and then dropping three stories down), and that a strong, tall soldier would make for a surprising first casualty. Ross was especially happy that he didn't have to do the stunt himself; the stunt man reportedly did it three times because Cameron kept coming up with more stuff, such as Ross instinctively trying to put out the flames even though he is falling to his death.
- #674
- #675
Contains a major spoiler — show
According to Lance Henriksen, he based the character of Bishop on his innocent 12-year-old self. He would sometimes get lost in the role during shooting and would leave the studio to wander around London where the movie was actually being filmed. Not knowing the area, he would easily get lost and have to call the crew to ask how to come back to the studio. Henriksen also said that just like his young self, Bishop would forgive people for their mistreatment of him, since he knew that he'll outlive all of them.
- #676
Contains a major spoiler — show
Michael Biehn stated that he didn't get to customize his armor because he was cast so late in production. For the most part he liked all of the custom work on his, but he states that he hated the heart with the padlock on the chest plate as it was far too much like a bulls-eye.
- #677
(At about the 51-minute mark) For a scene in which Bishop works at a microscope in the lab and gives one of the marines a frightening look, Lance Henriksen wanted to wear double-pupil contact lenses. He came to the set with the lenses, but after a test James Cameron decided he did not need to wear them, since he was already playing the character with just the right amount of creepiness (Cameron later said this made Bishop scarier than in Aliens).
- #678
According to Lance Henriksen, Full Metal Jacket (1987) was being shot nearby during the production of Aliens, so the crews of both films often got together for parties. Both films feature US Marines trapped in intense combat conditions, and both casts include a US Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War (R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket and Al Matthews in Aliens). In both films these actors played sergeants who used the phrase "assholes and elbows." Coincidentally, both actors died in 2018.
- #679
- #680
- #681
The knife trick scene was originally going to be performed by Bishop alone. Lance Henriksen suggested to James Cameron that Hudson place his hand on top of his, and Cameron agreed. This change was discussed with almost everyone except Bill Paxton. Henriksen recalls that after filming the scene there was a long night of drinking and that it was reshot, because the sped-up footage looked too artificial. During the reshoot, Paxton's pinky finger was accidentally cut.
- #682
After reading James Cameron's script, Sigourney Weaver made a few notes; these were mostly about how Ripley should react to situations, and Cameron welcomed them. Cameron praised Weaver for raising no objections about the direction the story wanted to go, even on the points where they disagreed. One of these was gun violence; Weaver had initially focused on the script's dialogue, not the stage directions. When she came to the set, she told Cameron that, as a gun control advocate, she was uncomfortable with all the shooting. Cameron thought this was perfect for Ripley, because she too was reluctant to use a gun unless she had to, and he told Weaver to reflect that attitude in her performance. He also took her to a shooting range and had her try an automatic weapon, which Weaver had to admit was pretty cool.
- #683
For the scene in which Bishop works with a microscope in the lab and gives one of the Marines a frightening look, Lance Henriksen wanted to wear contact lenses with double pupils. He came to the set with these lenses, but after testing them James Cameron decided he did not need to wear them, because he was already playing the character creepily enough (Cameron later said the lenses made Bishop scarier than the Creatures).
- #684
- #685
- #686
In an interview with Moviefone, Sigourney Weaver said that when one of the actors was going to 'die,' she gave them a bouquet of flowers before the shoot. When it came time for Paul Reiser to be killed, she gave him a bunch of wilted flowers. To Carrie Henn, she gave an engraved photograph after production ended.
- #687
James Cameron took the actors playing the Marines to the art department one afternoon and asked them to personalize their costumes (combat armor and coveralls) to add realism (just as soldiers in Vietnam wrote on their helmets). German-born actress Cynthia Dale Scott plays Corporal Dietrich and has 'BLUE ANGEL' written on the back of her helmet; this is a reference to Marlene Dietrich's film The Blue Angel (1930), or to Blue Angel. Bill Paxton's armor reads 'Louise,' dedicated to his real-life wife Louise Newbury. Ricco Ross carved a heart into his armor and wanted to add the name of his partner at the time, Heather, but because there was not enough room it became 'Heath.'
- #688
- #689
Lance Henriksen said he based the character of Bishop on his innocent 12-year-old self. During filming, he sometimes got lost in the role and would leave the studio and wander around London, where the film was being shot. Because he did not know the area, he would easily get lost and call the crew to ask how to get back to the studio. Henriksen also said that Bishop, just like his younger self, would forgive people who treated him badly, because he knew he would outlive them all.
- #690
Michael Biehn later said that he could almost never play heroic characters like Corporal Dwayne Hicks, that people saw something bad in his eyes when they looked at him and assumed there was something wrong with him. Coincidence or not, in his next film with James Cameron, The Abyss (1989), he played the villain.
- #691
- #692
James Remar originally played the character of Hicks, but Michael Biehn replaced him a few days after principal photography began. The reason often given for Remar's departure was 'creative differences' with director James Cameron, but on episode 128 of the 'Sidebar' podcast, Remar admitted that he was fired because he was caught in possession of drugs at a time when he had developed a terrible drug problem. Producer Gale Anne Hurd later added that Remar was arrested while buying 'speedball' (heroin mixed with cocaine) from an undercover police officer, so it was impossible for them to keep him in the film. His legal efforts at least succeeded in keeping him from being deported from the United Kingdom, thus saving him from a sentence of 8 to 10 years in prison. Remar still appears in the finished film - he can be seen in a single frame when the marines enter the alien nest. Because he is wearing the same armor as Michael Biehn, it is impossible to tell the two actors apart when he is seen from behind.
- #693
- #694
Lance Henriksen was nearly refused entry when he came to the United Kingdom for the shoot. In the United States, he had been rehearsing Bishop's knife trick with different types of knives because James Cameron did not know which knife he would use. When he arrived in London, he had carelessly brought all the knives in his luggage, and the customs officer was quite alarmed by what he saw.
- #695
- #696
Ricco Ross said that the reason director James Cameron named his character Frost was that he thought it would be ironic, since he would be set on fire with a flamethrower. Ross had been worried that Frost would be the typical black character killed off early in the film, but Cameron convinced him when he explained how the death would happen (being set on fire and falling three stories) and told him that a strong, tall soldier would be a surprising first loss. Ross was especially pleased that the stuntman performed the scene three times because Cameron kept adding new things, such as Ross instinctively trying to put out the flames as he fell to his death.
- #697
Bill Paxton ran into his friend and colleague James Cameron shortly after Cameron got the directing job on the film. Paxton jokingly said, 'I hope you write me a good role,' and was then called in to audition. He used a fake plasma rifle but was very eager, and he thought his performance was overly exaggerated. Fortunately, Cameron liked the energy Paxton displayed and offered him the role of the film's comic character, Private Hudson. Paxton gladly accepted, turning down the offer to play Zed in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985).
- #698
- #699
Michael Biehn had enjoyed working with James Cameron on The Terminator (1984) and was aware of Aliens; he practically campaigned for the role of Corporal Hicks. However, Cameron chose James Remar because he wanted to work with different people early in his career. Biehn was disappointed but moved on to other work. That is, until he got a phone call one Friday night from producer Gale Anne Hurd: Remar had been arrested for drug possession and Biehn needed to take over the role. Biehn began shooting in London on Monday. Cameron and Hurd later said that Biehn brought a humanity to Hicks that they felt was missing from Remar's performance. Interestingly, a similar situation had occurred with the casting of John Hurt as Kane in Alien (1979): Hurt had been considered but was cast as Jon Finch because he was unavailable. When Finch fell ill, Hurt, whose schedule had opened up, was offered the role over the weekend and began shooting on Monday.
- #700
- #701
Lance Henriksen was so impressed by the effort James Cameron put in as director, writer and designer at the film's premiere that he promised he would write Cameron a letter to properly express his feelings. However, he never did, and Cameron thought Henriksen hated the film. Fortunately, they eventually cleared everything up.
- #702
- #703
Jenette Goldstein's character Vasquez takes her name from Vasquez Rocks, a famous mountain range used in films and in the original Star Trek (1966) episode Arena (1967). Vasquez in turn inspired the character Tasha Yar in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), and Goldstein was originally considered for that role. She later made a brief appearance in Star Trek: Generations (1994). Bill Paxton's character Hudson, meanwhile, inspired the character Guy Fleegman in the Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest (1999), which also starred Sigourney Weaver.
- #704
Ricco Ross (Frost) and William Hope (Lieutenant Gorman) said they were offered roles at the same time in Aliens and Full Metal Jacket (1987), both of which were to be shot in London. Hope was persuaded to choose Aliens once he learned that its producers had made The Terminator (1984). Ross's eight-week shooting schedule for FMJ overlapped with his first week on Aliens, but because he wanted so badly to work with Stanley Kubrick, he asked James Cameron for permission to do both films. Cameron agreed on the condition that Ross be available in the second week of Aliens shooting. Kubrick, however, could not guarantee Ross that his work would be finished by then (he said eight weeks could easily turn into eight months), so Ross chose only Aliens. When Aliens was released, Kubrick was still shooting FMJ.
- #705
- #706
While delivering the line 'Get away from her, you bitch,' Sigourney Weaver had planned to say the last word in a lower register, but on the first take she accidentally went higher. Director James Cameron, who normally does two or three takes, liked it and did not ask for another. The line became so popular among fans that they almost always quote it like Ripley, emphasizing the last word.
- #707
- #708
- #709
- #710
- #711
Sigourney Weaver and James Cameron had a long argument over whether Ripley hates the creature. Cameron thought she did, but the actress was hesitant. Cameron saw the film directly as a revenge story and convinced Weaver with the idea that Ripley would do everything she could to keep what happened to her from happening to someone else.
- #712
For the role of Vasquez, the producers were looking for a muscular woman. Because they thought they would not find a muscular actress, they were seriously considering a female bodybuilder. According to Jenette Goldstein, when the producers saw her they were a little surprised, because she was a trained actress with the athletic physique they were looking for.
- #713
- #714
- #715
Many characters in the film whose first names are never mentioned actually carry the first name of the actor playing them: e.g. Sgt. Al Apone (Al Matthews), Cpl. Collette Ferro (Colette Hiller), Pfc. Jenette Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), Pvt. Mark Drake (Mark Rolston), Pvt. William Hudson (Bill Paxton), Pvt. Daniel Spunkmeyer (Daniel Kash), Pvt. Ricco Frost (Ricco Ross), Pvt. Trevor Wierzbowski (Trevor Steedman), Lance Bishop (Lance Henriksen) and director Paul van Leuwen (Paul Maxwell). Lt. Gorman (William Hope), however, is referred to as 'Scott' rather than 'William.' Cpl. C. Dietrich was planned to be 'Cynthia' (inspired by her actress, Cynthia Dale Scott), but the actress chose 'Carla' because, like Dietrich, Scott is of German origin. As revealed in an additional scene in the Special Edition, Cpl. Hicks's (Michael Biehn) first name is not 'Michael' but 'Dwayne,' and Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) first name is not 'Sigourney' but 'Ellen.' The latter was not an invention of writer/director James Cameron; when Alien (1979) writer/producer Walter Hill needed a first name for the ID cards in that film, he used his mother's middle name as Ripley's first name.
- #716
According to the cast, every actress who auditioned for a Marine role read Vasquez's lines, the tough female grunt, while all the actors read Hudson's lines, because those two characters had the most and the best dialogue. Jenette Goldstein and Cynthia Dale Scott stated that when they read for the role of Vasquez they were also considered for other roles (possibly Ferro), because bodybuilder Rachel McLish had already been cast as Vasquez and was taking acting lessons. McLish later left the project because she demanded that Vasquez never swear (it went against her religious beliefs). Director James Cameron later recalled being impressed by Goldstein and, while convincing the studio to give Goldstein the role of Vasquez, wrote Dietrich, a new role specifically for Scott.
- #717
- #718
James Remar was fired after being caught in possession of drugs. This incident damaged his relationship with producer Walter Hill, with whom he had worked on The Warriors (1979), The Long Riders (1980) and 48 Hrs. (1982). Hill was the producer of Aliens and had gotten Remar an audition. Nine years passed before the two worked together again, on Wild Bill (1995).
- #719
When Bill Paxton auditioned for the role of Hudson, he was simultaneously set to appear in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985). Paxton says he turned down that role because it was Zed and he would have been required to appear in future sequels. The role of Zed eventually went to Bobcat Goldthwait.
- #720
Stephen Lang auditioned for the roles of Carter Burke and Corporal Dwayne Hicks. Hicks was ultimately played by Michael Biehn. Lang later played the villain Miles Quaritch in Avatar (2009), also directed by James Cameron. The role of Quaritch was originally intended for Biehn, but because Sigourney Weaver was already in the cast, they wanted to avoid Avatar looking like an 'Aliens reunion'.
- #721
Contrary to popular belief, Hudson's line about Vasquez thinking the word 'alien' means 'illegal immigrant' was not improvised. According to an interview with Jenette Goldstein, Goldstein was living in England at the time and, when she heard the film's title, thought it was about immigrants (in England, immigrants are called 'resident alien'). However, this line was already in the finished script before Goldstein was cast.
- #722
Because he didn't have a natural coolness, Daniel Kash went to his audition for the role of Pvt. Spunkmeyer wearing a very cool coat. When he ran into Al Matthews, an extremely cool former marine, in the audition room, he thought he was in trouble. However, director James Cameron approached Kash and told him the role was his, asking for the cool coat in return; Kash gladly gave him the coat.
- #723
- #724
Daniel Kash's final lines as Spunkmeyer ('One second, there's something... I'm in. The ramp is closing') were not spoken by the actor himself. Kash was asked to record additional dialogue in Los Angeles during post-production, but he was unavailable because he was in a play in Nova Scotia. An unknown actor voiced the lines (Kash noted that it had a New York accent he doesn't have).
- #725
Bill Paxton was allowed to improvise the insults he hurls at the Creatures in his final scene, but none of his original dialogue could be used because of the background noise. When he was called in to re-record his lines during post-production, the sound department and even Paxton himself had great difficulty understanding what he had said. They had to make do and guess to fill in the gaps.
- #726
Mac McDonald, who plays colony leader Al Simpson, may be familiar to science fiction fans, but only in small roles. He later played the captain in the series Red Dwarf (1988) and the flying policeman covered in fast food in The Fifth Element (1997); Al Matthews (Sgt. Apone) also appeared in that film.
- #727
- #728
When James Cameron went to write the script, he was told that Sigourney Weaver was fully committed to the role of Ripley. Cameron wrote the script accordingly, unaware that no such agreement had been made with the actress. Cameron joked, 'That's why she got the first big paycheck of her acting career.' He also noted that she may be the first actress to be paid 1 million dollars for a film role, but that this is debatable because Elizabeth Taylor received 1 million dollars plus a share of the box office for Cleopatra (1963).
- #729
- #730
- #731
- #732
William Hope (Gorman) voiced Dr. Groves in the 2010 video game Aliens vs. Predator (2010) and Marshall Waits in Alien: Isolation (2014) (coincidentally, Gorman's incompetence shares similar traits with the character of Waits). He also voiced Predator characters in the games Aliens vs. Predator 2 (2001) and CR: Alien vs. Predator (2007). He recorded voice work for the character T. Shannon for Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013), but the character did not appear in the final game.
- #733
Jonesy was played by a cat named Boris, who belonged to the family of British actress and stand-up comedian Sooz Kempner when she was a child. According to Kempner, Boris was chosen for his ability to hiss in front of the camera, and not much effort was needed to achieve this. To make this happen, there was another cat inside a cat carrier covered with a blanket. When the blanket was pulled away, Boris immediately began to hiss.
- #734
- #735
This is one of two films in which Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton are on the same team. Both are marines in this film, and four years later they become Navy SEALs in Navy Seals (1990). Seven years later they are enemies in Tombstone (1993): Biehn as Johnny Ringo and Paxton as Morgan Earp. They also appeared together in The Terminator (1984) and The Lords of Discipline (1983).
- #736
- #737
- #738
- #739
- #740
James Cameron was so impressed by Linda Hamilton's performance in Terminator 2: Judgment Day that he campaigned for her to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, but failed. On this film, Sigourney Weaver was nominated in the same category but lost to Marlee Matlin. Interestingly, Weaver's character is referred to as "Ellen Ripley" in Mr. Destiny (1990); Hamilton's character was also Ellen Ripley.
- #741
Sigourney Weaver admitted that receiving an Oscar nomination for this film "surprised" her, noting that the Academy rarely recognises the science fiction, horror and action genres. She added: "It was very unheard of – and still is. But I knew that Cameron made the character and the story structure meaningful for people, so whatever the genre, I was just happy to be embraced by the Academy for the story alone."
- #742
- #743
- #744
- #745
According to Lance Henriksen, Bishop was almost scarier than the creatures: "I thought it would be good if Bishop had two pupils appear in his eyes when he was alerted to something, and I had contact lenses made. When Jim saw the dailies he said, 'God, we can't use this. You're scarier than the alien!'"
- #746
- #747
- #748
Jenette Goldstein and Michael Biehn also appeared in this film and in James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Biehn only in the Special Edition). Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton appeared in Cameron's original The Terminator (1984). Goldstein would later appear with Mark Rolston in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989).
- #749
Speaking about Jenette Goldstein's casting as Vasquez, Cameron agreed with the controversy, saying: "If we did this today, we'd be crucified." He explained that Goldstein was a member of the British actors' union Equity at the time and that shooting in the UK largely meant casting from that pool. He also recalled the physical transformation the role required: "Here comes this fair-skinned, freckled, blue-eyed Jewish girl from Beverly Hills. Yes, this is Vasquez – so fair!... A little body makeup, brown lenses, dye your hair black, you'll be great!"
Easter Eggs & References (78)
- #750
Hudson's helmet has a calendar which reveals some details about his character and the Alien timeline. The helmet reveals the following things: he has been in the service for at least a year (12 months, with the last month being still "active"). July is the current active month. This further confirms the information from other Alien timelines that Aliens take place in July 2179. He was already obsessed with "Game Over" before the dropship crashed. It originally meant the end of his military service.
- #751
- #752
The original planetoid from Alien (1979) never got named in that film, although the script referred to it as 'Acheron'. The screenplay of Aliens also used the name Acheron, but refers to Weyland-Yutani's technical name for it, LV-426, in dialogue. LV-426 may refer to the Holy Bible, Leviticus 4:26 (God to Moses: "He shall burn all the fat on the altar as he burned the fat of the fellowship offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for the leader's sin, and he will be forgiven"), or Proverbs 4:26 ("Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways"). Also, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Aliens, 20th Century Fox celebrated the first inaugural Alien Day on April 26th (or 4/26) in 2016 in reference to the planetoid's name.
- #753
- #754
- #755
- #756
Sergeant Apone's full rank is listed as "SFC" on a computer monitor. That is the abbreviation for the current U.S. Army rank of Sergeant First Class, which is usually a platoon sergeant position. The equivalent current U.S. Marine Corps rank would be Gunnery Sergeant, abbreviated GySgt. SFC Apone also wears the current Army gold and green stripes of a Sergeant First Class.
- #757
In the film The Terminator (1984) there is a scene where Reese has a flashback of the Bad Future where he is fighting alongside a girl soldier. While she has no name or dialog in the movie and is just a Red Shirt, the novelization names her "Corporal Ferro," and provides a little more detail. Evidentally James Cameron is rather fond of this name as he re-uses it for this character despite there being no connection other than them both being female soldiers.
- #758
- #759
- #760
Jenette Goldstein's character, Vasquez, was named after Vasquez Rocks, a mountain range famous for being used in movies and the original Star Trek (1966) episode Arena (1967). Vasquesz, in turn, inspired the character Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), and Goldstein herself was initially considered for the part. She later went on to make a brief appearance in Star Trek: Generations (1994). Bill Paxton's character, Hudson, inspired the character Guy Fleegman in the Star Trek spoof Galaxy Quest (1999), which also starred Sigourney Weaver.
- #761
- #762
This is one of two films in which Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton play roles where they are on the same team. They are both marines in this movie, and four years later, Navy Seals in Navy Seals (1990). In Tombstone (1993), seven years later, they are enemies: Biehn as Johnny Ringo and Paxton as Morgan Earp. They also appeared together in The Terminator (1984) and The Lords of Discipline (1983).
- #763
The actor Mac McDonald who plays Al Simpson, the head of the colony, may be familiar to sci-fi buffs, but only for minor roles. He would later play the captain of the Red Dwarf (1988) and he was the flying cop who gets covered in fast food in The Fifth Element (1997), in which Al Matthews (Sgt. Apone) appeared as well.
- #764
- #765
- #766
- #767
(at around 43 mins) Inside the colony complex, Bishop (Lance Henriksen reads the medical chart of a "Marachek, John J.", one of the colonists who died when they removed a facehugger from his face. This name could be a reference to actor Steve Marachuk who starred with Henriksen in Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), one of director James Cameron's previous films.
- #768
- #769
(at around 41 mins) Vasquez calls in Spanish "pendejo" to Gorman. Contrary to popular belief, it does not mean asshole in English, it's less severe that that, it isn't even considered profane. Loosely translated, it means "dummy" or "birdbrain" or a word to that effect. The word for "asshole" in Spanish is "cabrón".
- #770
(at around 1 min) In Alien (1979), H.R. Giger originally intended the openings on top of the Alien eggs to closely resemble a human vulva, but the explicitly sexual aspects of the design were soon dropped due to censorship concerns. He then designed the opening of the Derelict Ship that Dallas, Lambert and Ash go through to be vaguely vulvar in shape. Giger's vision of a distinctly vaginal beginning to the Aliens' story may have extended in some small way to the sequel: the letter "I" in the film's title flares out into an ovular shape, vaguely resembling a vulva.
- #771
In Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013), Gorman's first name is William, however the crew manifest seen on a monitor aboard the Sulaco in the film gives his first initial as S. The in-universe book 'Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report' later revealed his first name is Scott. This name was in fact chosen as a subtle thank you to an Alien franchise fan, expert and forum member who helped to fact check the report.
- #772
(at around 50 mins, extended version only) When the Colonial Marines first search the complex, there are no signs of the colonists or what happened other than the battle damage. But when Hicks first detects an object on his motion tracker and he and Vasquez are stacked outside the colonist quarters, there's a bloody or dusted handprint on the door. That's the only sign of blood in the complex that viewers ever see.
- #773
- #774
James Cameron began his career creating special effects for Roger Corman (Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)). Decades earlier, Corman had directed The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), which was later filmed as a musical (Little Shop of Horrors (1986)), also at Pinewood Studios, and at the same time this film was photographed. That film features a scene in which Orin Scrivello (Steve Martin) rips the head off a girl's doll. This film features Newt (Carrie Henn) carrying around a severed doll's head.
- #775
(at around 24 mins) At the briefing, Pvt Vasquez gets impatient with Ripley's explanation about the Aliens, and says "I only need to know one thing: where they are". Although probably unintentionally, she refers to the ancient proverb "The Spartans do not ask how many the enemy number, but where they are."
- #776
- #777
- #778
The Alien franchise was a major inspiration for the Nintendo series of Metroid (1986). The first game features a girl heroine that explores planets by herself while fighting dangerous biomechanoid creatures. They even named the bad guy of the series (Ridley) after the director of Alien (1979), Sir Ridley Scott, and the second game, Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991), features a Metroid Queen.
- #779
- #780
- #781
- #782
- #783
(at around 13 mins) When Carter Burke and Marine Lieutenant Gorman are trying to convince Ripley to return to LV-426, he mentions the Colonial Marines are "Real tough hombres." "Tough 'Ombres" is the name of the US Army's 90th Infantry Division which saw action during WWI and WWII. This reference is either an incredible coincidence or an incredibly sly bit of foreshadowing on the part of the writers. The 90th Infantry Division suffered one of the highest casualty rates of any US Army division during World War II, with just under 20,000 Soldiers killed, wounded, captured or missing. One of the largest contributing factors to the division's high casualty rate turned out to be poorly trained leadership. By referring to the Marines as "Really tough hombres," Burke may be foreshadowing the outcome of the Marines' first encounter with the alien creatures, and highlighting Lieutenant Gorman's lack of experience.
- #784
- #785
- #786
(at around 32 mins) During the drop, Hicks falls asleep. This is an obvious nod to Mercury astronaut Major Gordon Cooper, who was the last solo American in space and had the longest solo flight. Cooper was so laid back that he fell asleep in his capsule during the prelaunch countdown and had to be woken up before they could continue.
- #787
- #788
The blu-ray edition of the Alien Quadrology box set (the first four movies) has an unusual feature: When you eject the blu-ray from your player, it leaves a "Weyland-Yutani: Building Better Worlds" advertisement on the TV screen. (Your screen returns to normal when you insert - eject another disc). The advertisements are in different colors for every movie.
- #789
- #790
- #791
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 29 mins) Inside the APV preparing for battle, "El riesgo siempre vive!" can be seen scrawled in white across the armor on Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein). Literally translated from Spanish, it says: "The risk always lives!"; although it has been claimed to be a variant of the Ancient Roman slogan "Luck favors the bold", Goldstein stated that it is a much more cynical Latino proverb, closer to "The risk is always there" or "You won't get out alive".
- #792
Contains a major spoiler — show
People have wondered why Ripley never brings up Special Order 937 during the investigation at the beginning of the movie. This order, given by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to Science Officer Ash aboard the USCSS Nostromo, was to preserve the Xenomorph specimen encountered by the Nostromo and bring it back alive for analysis; all of the Nostromo's crew members were deemed expendable. Ripley thus discovered at the end of Alien (1979) that the company had sent her on a suicide mission to bring back the Alien under false pretenses. However, when the company investigates her after she returns and essentially blames all the deaths and the destruction of the ship on her, she doesn't bring up Special Order 937, nor reminds them of how they basically sacrificed several human lives in an illegal suicide mission. It is easy to miss, but Ripley *does* actually refer to the order briefly, when she replies to the statement that the Nostromo set down on LV-426 "for reasons unknown"; she responds that they "set down there *on company orders* to get this thing, which destroyed my crew and your expensive ship". However, the company representatives quickly dodge the implication by questioning Ripley's judgment, stating that there is no evidence that the creature was ever on board, and thus quickly dispelling any notion that she has seen any secret orders to obtain one in the first place. Apparently, the flight recorder cannot back up any details of the order, so the company could easily deny that it was ever issued (and even if it was, those in power at the time have long since passed and can no longer be held accountable). Which is why Ripley is forced to team up with the company again, who does yet another Special Order 937 through the unethical executive Burke.
- #793
- #794
- #795
- #796
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 43 mins, extended version only) Hudson's (Bill Paxton) boasting monologue aboard the dropship was originally scripted and filmed to occur before the ship is dropped, but was moved in editing to occur while the ship is in mid-flight. This explains why Hudson is out of his seat despite the turbulence warning, and why Hicks (Michael Biehn) is awake and asleep between shots (see also Goofs). When Hudson talks about some of the weaponry of the Colonial Marines, he mentions a "phased plasma pulse rifle"; the pulse rifles the marines carry are kinetic, not "phased plasma", but the line references The Terminator (1984) (also directed by James Cameron, and featuring Paxton in a minor role) in which the Terminator asks a gun store clerk for a "phased plasma rifle."
- #797
- #798
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 2h) After the dropship rescues Ripley and Newt, a blast sends it hurling sideways into the wall before Bishop regains control. As he retracts the landing legs, some of the wreckage is pulled in with them. The Queen alien apparently used the opportunity to jump into the landing leg well.
- #799
- #800
Contains a major spoiler — show
Many of the characters in the movie whose first names are never mentioned, actually share their first name with the actor/actress portraying them: e.g. Sgt. Al Apone (Al Matthews), Cpl. Collette Ferro (Colette Hiller), Pfc. Jenette Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), Pvt. Mark Drake (Mark Rolston), Pvt. William Hudson (Bill Paxton), Pvt. Daniel Spunkmeyer (Daniel Kash), Pvt. Ricco Frost (Ricco Ross), Pvt. Trevor Wierzbowski (Trevor Steedman), Lance Bishop (Lance Henriksen) and director Paul van Leuwen (Paul Maxwell). Lt. Gorman (William Hope), however, is not called 'William' but 'Scott'. Although Cpl. C. Dietrich was meant to be named "Cynthia" after her performer Cynthia Dale Scott, she chose "Carla" because like Dietrich's name, Scott is of German descent. As revealed in an additional scene in the Special Edition, the first name of Cpl. Hicks (Michael Biehn) isn't 'Michael', but 'Dwayne', and Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) is not 'Sigourney' but 'Ellen'. The latter was not an invention of writer/director James Cameron; when Alien (1979) writer/producer Walter Hill needed a first name for that film's ID cards, he used the middle name of his mother as Ripley's first name.
- #801
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 35 mins) When they have landed and deployed in the troop carrier, Apone tells the Marines they have 10 seconds until they arrive. If you count from here until the first Marine jumps out of the carrier and his boots hit the ground, it really is ten seconds.
- #802
- #803
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 20 mins) When the crew is getting dressed after waking up from hypersleep, Hudson says, "Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" to which Vasquez answers, "No. Have you?" Although writer/director James Cameron said that he got this exchange from a conversation he once overheard in a bar, it is also a famous Hollywood legend involving columnist Earl Wilson and actress Tallulah Bankhead. He asked "Have you ever been mistaken for a man?" and she said, "No darling. Have you?"
- #804
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 24 mins) Contrary to popular belief, Hudson's quip to Vasquez about her thinking that she thought "alien" meant "illegal alien" was not improvised as a joke. According to an interview with Jenette Goldstein after the film was released, she was living in England at the time, and when she heard the title of the film, she mistakenly thought it was, in fact, about immigrants (who are called 'resident aliens' there). However, the line already appeared in the finished script before Goldstein was cast.
- #805
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 22 mins) In the shooting script, the synthetic Ash from the previous movie was referred to as a 'Cyberdyne Systems 120-A/2', an obvious nod to the Cyberdyne Systems 101 Terminator from The Terminator (1984), James Cameron's previous movie. It was changed in the movie to a Hyperdine System 120-A2.
- #806
- #807
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 30 mins) In the MedLab scene, just before Ripley reaches out to hug Newt after setting off the fire alarm, there is a futuristic piece of medical apparatus with three objects hanging down off it that can be briefly seen in the foreground. These objects are actually three Transformers toys, namely the Decepticon 'Shockwave' made by Hasbro in 1985 (though it's possible that the toy might even be the earlier 'Galactic Man' sold by Radio Shack). The toys have been spray-painted a dull silver color and are displayed in their laser gun 'mode', but with each of the robot toy's arms (i.e. the laser gun's barrel) split apart. In this 'semi-transformation' the toy is made to look like a futuristic grasping tool or perhaps even a laser scalpel. With this 'cameo' of sorts, it could be said that 'Shockwave' appeared in two movies in 1986, the other being The Transformers: The Movie (1986).
- #808
- #809
- #810
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 22 mins) Bishop's line about him being incapable of hurting a person or letting anyone come to harm are a paraphrase of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, more specifically the First Law: "A robot may not injure a human being nor, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." (the Second Law is "A robot must obey the orders given by a human being except where it would conflict with the First Law; the Third Law is, "A robot must protect its own existence except where it would conflict with the First or Second Laws."). Asimov eventually introduced a "Zeroth" Law: "A robot may not injure humanity nor, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."
- #811
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 16 mins, extended version only) A scene on the colony before the Alien outbreak was deleted from the final cut, but it was reinstated in the Special Edition. It shows a Weyland-Yutani employee asking his superior why the Company has requested that they check some remote coordinates on the planet; his superior indicates that he didn't bother to ask, since it takes weeks to get an answer, and the answer is always "Don't ask". Elements of that scene show up in later James Cameron projects: the entire scene in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) where Miles Dyson is introduced at Cyberdyne follows the same pacing and tone as the scene from Aliens: an employee flags down a supervisor, they walk together, talking about the mysterious behavior of their employer (Weyland-Yutani in Aliens, CyberDyne Systems in Terminator 2) and ending in the line '...don't ask'. The character name 'Lydecker' was used in Dark Angel (2000).
- #812
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 21 mins) The knife trick performed by Bishop (Lance Henriksen) is an homage to the film Dark Star (1974), in which a similar knife trick was performed by Boiler (Cal Kuniholm). Dark Star which was co-written and starred by Dan O'Bannon, who also wrote the story and screenplay for the original Alien (1979).
- #813
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 40 mins) Hudson (Bill Paxton) is last seen dragged away by an Alien warrior, so it is assumed that he was either killed by Aliens, or died in the nuclear explosion when the atmosphere processor went critical. However, the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013) gives him a different (non-canon) fate: the colony complex, though heavily damaged from the blast, is still standing, and Hudson's corpse is found in the sewer, cocooned to the wall and with a hole in his chest, clearly having been killed when a Chestburster emerged from him.
- #814
- #815
- #816
- #817
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 2 mins, extended version only) Newt says that everybody calls her "Newt" except her brother Timmy, who calls her by her real name, Rebecca. However, in the previous scene where Newt's parents enter the derelict while she and her brother wait for them, Timmy also calls her Newt instead of Rebecca. Some dialogue was deleted from the beginning of the scene that explained that Timmy and Rebecca often play a forbidden hide-and-seek game in the air ducts that they call 'Monster Maze', and Rebecca often wins because she can crawl in places where other children don't fit (which may explain her nickname).
- #818
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 50 mins) When Ripley drops the marking flare, you can clearly see the "Reebok" logo on her shoe. Which is odd given the time in which the movie is set, but Reebok still sells the shoe, and it's called the "Alien Stomper". However "Reebok" logo is seen earlier (at around 28 mins) in the loading bay, when Ripley does her first step in 'Power Loader'.
- #819
- #820
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 2h) The music that plays when the Alien Queen appears as Ripley and Newt wait for the elevator is a reused piece from Jerry Goldsmith's score for the original Alien (1979). Thematically, the music appears in both movies at the same time: near the end, as Ripley tries to escape but is suddenly confronted by the Alien, while the environment around her counts down to self-destruction (the Nostromo in Alien, and the atmosphere processor in Aliens). Another re-used piece of score is heard when Ripley arrives at the platform and is shocked to find out that Bishop has left with the dropship; in Alien, it was heard while Parker and Lambert are menaced and killed by the Alien.
- #821
- #822
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1 min) The music in the beginning, when the Narcissus is shown floating in space, was also used in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It's the Adagio from the Gayaneh Ballet Suite by Aram Khachaturyan. '2001' was directed by Stanley Kubrick who is one of James Cameron's favorite directors.
- #823
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 16 mins, extended version only) Except for a very small reference in Alien (1979), the special edition of this film is the first to reveal the name of 'The Company' as Weyland-Yutani. The name is clearly written on several pieces of equipment and walls in the colony during the pre-Alien outbreak scene, as well as the slogan "Building better worlds" referred to by Burke later on.
- #824
- #825
- #826
James Cameron ran into a major problem trying to win the trust and respect of the British crew, most of whom had worked on Alien (1979). Although his previous film, The Terminator (1984), had been a big hit in the US, it had underperformed at the UK box office following its January 1985 release. To try to convince the crew that he had the talent and skills the job required, Cameron arranged screenings of The Terminator on set to show them his abilities, but most ignored the invitation and did not bother to come.
- #827
James Cameron took the actors playing the Marines to the art department one afternoon, where they were asked to personalize their own costumes (combat armor and clothing) for greater realism, much as soldiers in Vietnam wrote and drew on their own helmets. Cynthia Dale Scott, who is of German origin and plays Corporal Dietrich, has "BLUE ANGEL" written on the back of her helmet, a reference to Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel (1930). Bill Paxton's armor bears the name "Louise," a tribute to his real-life wife Louise Newbury. Ricco Ross carved a heart into his armor and wanted to add the name of his then-partner Heather, but with no room left the name became "Heath."
Deeper Meaning (68)
- #828
The Alien menace is actually visually introduced in the film when the Marines enter the Hive -- composed of secreted resinous material. Similarly to the deleted Eggmorphing scene in the first film (which, at the time of Aliens, was simply excised and did not appear in any cut of the film) the Aliens pinned hosts to walls. Cameron explained: "the Alien structure provided an interesting opportunity for us to do a Gigeresque-type structure created biologically by the Aliens -- much the way ants do when they cement the walls of their tunnels using saliva mixed with granules of rock and sand."
- #829
James Cameron said, "Ridley did the first film, and he inspired an entire generation of filmmakers and science-fiction fans with that one movie and there have been so many films that stylistically have derived from it, including my own 'Aliens,' which was the legitimate sequel and, I think, the proper heir to his film. I sort of did it as a fanboy. I wanted to honor his film but also say what I needed to say. After that, I don't take any responsibility."
- #830
- #831
While James Cameron recognizes how wonderfully shot Alien³ (1992) is, he sees it as a slap in the face to fans who fell in love with and wanted to see more of the relationship between Ripley and Newt. "I understand the instinct, which is you have to make it your own," says Cameron. "I just don't think you should make it your own at the expense of what people like." However, Cameron is also conscious of issues that Sir Ridley Scott might have with this film.
- #832
"To be perfectly honest, at the time I made the movie, I knew diddly dick about how big corporations worked anyway, so, to me, they were just this big, shadowy entity," said James Cameron before noting he does think he nailed it pretty well, not having any first-hand experience with them. However, he did admit later that he didn't believe the character Burke (Paul Reiser) was very realistic. He had written him as a ruthless schemer, but later found that most company men are "spineless and would not go out on a limb as Burke does for a proactive reason of greed". Reiser himself described Burke as "misunderstood", a man who didn't set out to do evil things but felt forced to do so along the way to protect Company interests.
- #833
The planetoid is called LV-426 in the movie, but in the script it was less formally named 'Acheron', as it was also called in the script of Alien (1979). In Greek mythology, Acheron is 'the river of woe', one of five rivers in the Underworld (the land of the dead). Acheron forms the border between the upper and the lower world, and dead souls needs to cross it to reach the Underworld. James Cameron conceived of the designation LV-426 as it sounded like a navigational reference point. Fans have since theorized that LV may stand for 'life viable', meaning that the planetoid is at an appropriate distance from a nearby star to be able to sustain life, and that the designation '426' simply means that it is the 426th life-viable planet identified.
- #834
- #835
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film owes much to Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel, "Starship Troopers", of which James Cameron was a fan. In that novel, Earth's military are sent to battle an alien species called the "Pseudo-Arachnids" (or "Bugs"), which are communal beings originating from the planet of Klendathu. They have multiple castes; workers, warriors, brains, and queens - similar to ants or termites. Ships can travel tens of light-years in a matter of weeks. Earth's military is made of both male and female soldiers. During the orientation in Aliens, when Hudson asks if this is a "bug hunt", the line was paraphrasing the novel. The power loader in Aliens was based on the combat exoskeletons in the book. The use of the term "drop" also originated in Starship Troopers. Cameron instructed all of the cast of Aliens who were playing marines to read the novel to get a sense of what their characters background and dynamic was.
- #836
Contains a major spoiler — show
As Jay Benedict (Newt's father) was the first of the colonists to be impregnated by a 'facehugger', it has been theorized by many fans that he may have given birth to the Xenomorph Queen. James Cameron commented in Starlog magazine that off screen, after Newt's mother called for help, a rescue team arrived. Some of its members investigated the Derelict Ship, got impregnated as well, and 'birthed' several chestbursters after being brought back to the colony complex. Cameron theorized that, in an analogy to insects, "an immature female, one of the first to emerge from hosts, grows to become a new Queen (possibly due to being given special food), while males become drones or warriors. Subsequent female larvae remain dormant or are killed, or biochemically sense that a Queen exists, and change into males to limit waste". This suggests that originally, a normal sterile Alien molted into a Queen capable of reproduction. Note that this would seem to be contradicted in Alien³ (1992), where a chestburster is already identified as a Queen while still inside a human body. However, fans have speculated that this particular one was implanted by a 'royal facehugger', that came out of an emergency egg laid by the Queen aboard the Sulaco after she lost her ovipositor.
- #837
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film takes place in 2179. This is derived from Ripley's statement about Burke's transmission to the colony on 6/12/79. No century was specified, but the in-universe guide "Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual" that was published in 1995 set both Alien (1979) and this film in the 22nd century. The events of Alien (1979) have since been retroactively and canonically dated to 2122, 57 years before Aliens.
- #838
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Burke and Gorman visit Ripley at the beginning, Burke fidgets with an item of Ripley's clothes lying on the table (which she moves away, annoyed) and (off-screen) helps himself with some milk or cream for his coffee, without asking. These small details help foreshadow Burke's selfish, arrogant nature, in spite of the "nice guy" mask he is putting on with Ripley.
- #839
Contains a major spoiler — show
James Cameron wrote the movie as an allegory to the American involvement in the Vietnam War, with the marines representing the U.S. conservative hawks and the xenomorphs (aliens) representing the Vietnamese. In an interview with Screenprism, James Cameron said, "Their training and technology are inappropriate for the specifics, and that can be seen as analogous to the inability of the superior American firepower to conquer the unseen enemy in Vietnam: a lot of firepower and very little wisdom, and it didn't work." Cameron has also likened Ripley to veteran soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, who would inexplicably be among the first to go back to the war zone despite the horrors they witnessed.
- #840
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 23 mins) During their briefing, the marines asks whether it will be "a stand up fight, or another bug hunt". When learning that a "xenomorph" may be involved, they confirm that it is the latter. It is never explained in the movie what is meant by a bug hunt; the only subtle hints may be the logos on the dropship that say 'Bug Stomper' and 'We Endanger Species', which imply that it is some form of pest control. In the second draft of William Gibson's unused script for Alien³ (1992), it is explained that the Colonial Marines are often sent to colonies to eradicate 'redundant species' on the planets, to make it safe and habitable for the colonists, and prevent them from having to compete with other ecosystems. It is implied that these 'bugs' are extraterrestrial parasitic lower life forms, as opposed to the Aliens which are clearly more complex and intelligent.
- #841
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the first half of all four Alien films, one or two characters are introduced and built up in a way to make the audience think that they are going to be important characters throughout the story, only to have them killed off less than halfway through. In Aliens, it is Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews).
- #842
- #843
Contains a major spoiler — show
One question not answered by the film is whether the Aliens show up on infrared scopes or not. According to the novelization, they normally do. However, due to the heat from the cooling exchangers and hot pipes in the atmosphere processor, the surroundings are so hot that it renders the creatures undetectable.
- #844
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 23 mins) At the time of the movie's release, the Alien species did not have an official name. The word that Gorman uses, "xenomorph", wasn't a name but simply a generic term for "unknown/alien lifeform" (from the Greek "xeno-" meaning strange/foreign, and "-morph" meaning shape or form), similar to how the military uses terms like 'unidentified flying object' (UFO) or 'bogey' for unknown objects. This has caused some confusion among fans, who didn't understand how they can know the name of a species that no one other than Ripley has ever seen. In an interesting twist of irony, the term 'Xenomorph' was so widely accepted by the fanbase that it has been adopted as the species' semi-official name (other than the more colloquial 'Alien'). The Alien was then retroactively named 'Xenomorph XX121' in James A. Moore's 2014 novel 'Alien: Sea of Sorrows' and S. D. Perry's 'Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report', and after fans also started to take over this designation, the term was officially canonized in Alien: Romulus (2024).
- #845
- #846
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 42 mins) The facehuggers (both the live specimens and the dead ones) that had been retained by the colonists were kept in jars of water so that if they got injured in any way and began secreting acid, the acid would immediately be diluted by the surrounding water, thus preventing the jar from being ruptured and the creature being released (the jar itself may also be made of glass, which is impervious to acid). While Bishop explains that the acid blood turns inert once an alien dies, the original script for Alien featured a scene where the dead facehugger immediately began to decompose and leak copious amounts of acid everywhere. This sparked a panicked rush to eject the facehugger's remains from the Nostromo before its blood could eat through the ship's hull. In terms of acid exposure, dead aliens were originally intended to be more dangerous than live ones.
- #847
The "special edition" includes seventeen minutes of extra scenes: Ripley talking to Burke about her daughter; Ripley's rank being reduced by the board; Newt's parents discovering the derelict alien ship on LV-426; a tour of the Sulaco before the marines wake up; Hudson boasting about his weapons; Ripley hesitating before entering the colony complex on the planet; robotic sentry guns repelling two alien attacks; the marines theorizing that the source of the eggs is an alien leader; and Hicks and Ripley exchanging names. It also includes a scene on LV-426 in which a child rides a Bigwheel similar to the one in The Terminator (1984), also directed by James Cameron.
- #848
James Cameron had focused his story and screenplay specifically around the character Ellen Ripley from Alien (1979), so he was horrified to learn that Sigourney Weaver had not signed on for a sequel and had not even been contacted about reprising her role. When Cameron finally reached her and gave her the script, Weaver showed interest, but the studio objected to her increased salary demands, since she had by then become a reliable star. The difficulties surrounding the contract negotiations were so great that the recently married Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd announced that if no deal was made by the time they returned from their honeymoon, they would walk away. When they returned, no progress had been made and shooting was to begin in a few months, so Cameron, who had no intention of making the film without Weaver but was also wary of the deadline scenario he had created, devised a plan: he called Arnold Schwarzenegger's agent for an informal chat and informed him that, thanks to the position he had newly found in Hollywood after The Terminator (1984), he planned to write Ripley out and make the film entirely his own; as Cameron anticipated, Schwarzenegger's agent immediately passed the information to his colleague at ICM who represented Weaver, who in turn contacted 20th Century-Fox Production President Lawrence Gordon. Both men were determined that under no circumstances would Ripley be written out, and they lost no time in signing Weaver's deal. Cameron later said he heard the bluff had worked, because if it had not, the film would most likely have been cancelled entirely.
- #849
- #850
Sigourney Weaver's Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for this film made her the first actor nominated in that category for a role in a 'science fiction action' film (Jane Alexander had previously been nominated for the apocalyptic drama Testament (1983), and Melinda Dillon was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)).
- #851
- #852
(Around the 29th minute) Inside the APV as it prepares for battle, 'El riesgo siempre vive!' is written in white on Vasquez's (Jenette Goldstein) armor. A literal translation from Spanish means 'Risk always lives!'; although it has been claimed to be a variant of the ancient Roman slogan 'Fortune favors the bold,' Goldstein has stated that it is a more sarcastic Latin saying and means 'Risk is always there' or 'You won't come out alive.'
- #853
(Around the 22nd minute) Bishop's words that he cannot harm a human or allow one to be harmed are an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics, particularly the First Law ('A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.'). (Second Law: 'A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law'; Third Law: 'A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.') Asimov later added a 'Zeroth Law': 'A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.'
- #854
The film takes place in the year 2179. This is derived from Burke's message to the colony dated 6/12/79. The century is not specified, but the 1995 universe guide 'Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual' places both Alien (1979) and this film in the 22nd century. The events of Alien (1979) were retroactively dated to 2122, 57 years before Aliens.
- #855
(Around the 23rd minute) During the briefing, the marines ask whether it will be 'a stand-up fight or another bug hunt.' When they learn that a 'xenomorph' may be involved, they confirm it is the latter. The film never explains what a 'bug hunt' means; the only clues are the 'Bug Stomper' and 'We Endanger Species' decals on the dropship, implying some kind of pest control. In the second draft of William Gibson's unused Alien³ (1992) script, it is explained that the Colonial Marines are often sent to exterminate 'unnecessary species' to make planets safe and habitable. These 'bugs' are implied to be low-level parasitic alien life forms, as opposed to the clearly more complex and intelligent Aliens.
- #856
(Around the 22nd minute) In the shooting script, the synthetic Ash from the previous film was referred to as 'Cyberdyne Systems 120-A/2,' a clear reference to the Cyberdyne Systems 101 Terminator in James Cameron's earlier film The Terminator (1984). In the film it was changed to Hyperdine System 120-A2.
- #857
- #858
The company's name, 'Weyland Yutani,' had appeared in Alien (1979) only on a beer can (spelled Weylan-Yutani). According to rumor, the name was taken from former neighbors of Alien director Sir Ridley Scott - he hated them, so he decided to 'dedicate' the name of the 'evil company' to them. In reality, the name was created by conceptual designer Ron Cobb to imply a British-Japanese company carving out a corner of the spacecraft market. By his own account, he would have liked to use 'Leyland-Toyota' but could not, so he changed one letter in Leyland and added the Japanese name of his own neighbor (not Scott's).
- #859
(Around the 16th minute, extended version only) Apart from a very small reference in Alien (1979), the special edition of this film reveals the 'Company's' name as Weyland-Yutani for the first time. The name is clearly visible on various equipment and walls in the colony in the scene before the alien outbreak, and in Burke's later-referenced slogan 'Building better worlds.'
- #860
- #861
(Around 42 minutes) The facehuggers kept by the colonists (both live specimens and dead ones) were held in water-filled jars, so that if they were injured in any way and began leaking acid, the acid would immediately be diluted by the surrounding water, preventing the jar from rupturing and the creature from escaping (the jar itself may also have been made of acid-resistant glass). Bishop explains that a facehugger's acid blood becomes inert when it dies, but the original script of Alien had a scene in which the dead facehugger immediately began to decompose and leak acid everywhere in abundance. This led to a panicked rush to jettison the facehugger's remains from the ship before they ate through the Nostromo's hull. In terms of acid exposure, dead aliens were initially designed to be more dangerous than live ones.
- #862
(Around 1 hour 50 minutes) When Ripley drops the flare, the 'Reebok' logo on her shoe is clearly visible. This is odd given the time period in which the film is set, but Reebok still sells the shoe, and its name is the 'Alien Stomper'. However, the 'Reebok' logo is seen earlier (around 28 minutes) in the loading bay, when Ripley first steps into the 'Power Loader'.
- #863
Jenette Goldstein's character Vasquez takes her name from Vasquez Rocks, a mountain range famous for its use in films and in the original Star Trek (1966) episode Arena (1967). Vasquez in turn inspired the character Tasha Yar in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), and Goldstein herself was initially considered for the role. She later made a brief appearance in Star Trek: Generations (1994). Bill Paxton's character Hudson inspired the character Guy Fleegman in the Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest (1999), which also starred Sigourney Weaver.
- #864
- #865
- #866
Because Jay Benedict (Newt's father) was the first colonist to be impregnated by a 'facehugger', many fans theorized that he may have given birth to the Xenomorph Queen. James Cameron commented behind the scenes in Starlog magazine that after Newt's mother called for help, a rescue team arrived. Some members of the team investigated the Derelict Ship, they too were impregnated, and after being brought back to the colony complex they 'gave birth' to several chestbursters. Cameron, likening them to insects, theorized that 'the first immature female to emerge from a host (possibly due to being given special nutrients) becomes a new Queen, while the males become workers or warriors.' This shows that an initially normal, sterile Alien transforms into a Queen capable of reproduction. Although this appears to contradict Alien³ (1992), in which a chestburster is identified as a Queen while still inside the human body, fans speculated that this one was implanted by a 'royal facehugger' that emerged from the emergency egg the Queen left behind on the Sulaco after losing her egg-layer.
- #867
(Around 2 hours) The music that plays when the Alien Queen appears as Ripley and Newt wait for the elevator is a piece reused from Jerry Goldsmith's original Alien (1979) score. Thematically, the music appears at the same point in both films: near the end, as Ripley tries to escape and suddenly encounters the Alien, while the environment around her counts down toward self-destruction (the Nostromo in Alien, the atmosphere processor in Aliens). Another reused piece of music is heard when Ripley reaches the platform and is shocked to learn that Bishop has left with the dropship; in Alien, it was heard as Parker and Lambert are threatened and killed by the Alien.
- #868
(Around 1 hour 40 minutes) Hudson (Bill Paxton) is last seen being dragged away by an Alien warrior, so it is assumed that he was either killed by the Aliens or died in the nuclear explosion when the atmosphere processor went critical. However, the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013) gives him a different (non-canon) fate: the colony complex, though heavily damaged by the explosion, is still standing, and Hudson's body is found in the sewers, cocooned to the wall with a hole in his chest, clearly killed when a Chestburster emerged from him.
- #869
James Cameron wrote the film as an allegory for American involvement in the Vietnam War; the marines represented American conservative hawks, while the xenomorphs (aliens) represented the Vietnamese. In an interview with Screenprism, Cameron said, 'Their training and technology are inappropriate for the specific situations, and this can be likened to the failure of superior American firepower to conquer the invisible enemy in Vietnam: too much firepower and too little wisdom, and it didn't work.' Cameron also likened Ripley to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, who were among the first to inexplicably return to the war zone despite the horrors they had witnessed.
- #870
- #871
- #872
One question the film does not answer is whether the Aliens show up on infrared scopes. According to the novelization, they normally do. However, because of the cooling exchangers in the atmosphere processor and the heat from the hot pipes, the environment is so hot that it renders the creatures undetectable.
- #873
The planetoid is called LV-426 in the film, but the script referred to it less formally as 'Acheron', as did the script for Alien (1979). In Greek mythology, Acheron is the 'river of woe', one of the five rivers of the Underworld (the realm of the dead). Acheron forms the boundary between the upper and lower worlds, and the souls of the dead must cross it to reach the Underworld. James Cameron devised the designation LV-426 because it sounded like a navigation reference point. Fans have since theorized that LV could stand for 'life viable', meaning the planetoid sits at a suitable distance from a nearby star to sustain life, and that '426' simply means it is the 426th life-viable planet identified.
- #874
- #875
- #876
People wonder why Ripley does not mention Special Order 937 during the inquiry at the start of the film. Issued by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to Science Officer Ash aboard the USCSS Nostromo, that order was to protect the Xenomorph specimen the Nostromo encountered and bring it back alive for analysis; the entire crew of the Nostromo was considered expendable. Ripley thus discovered at the end of Alien (1979) that the company had sent her on a suicide mission under false pretenses to retrieve the Alien. Yet when the company questions her after her return and essentially blames her for all the deaths and the destruction of the ship, she does not mention Special Order 937 or remind them that they basically sacrificed several human lives on an illegal suicide mission. It is easy to miss, but Ripley does briefly allude to the order: in response to the statement that the Nostromo set down on LV-426 'for unknown reasons', she says, 'We set down there *on company orders* to get this thing, which destroyed my crew and your expensive ship.' The company representatives, however, evade the implication by questioning Ripley's reasoning, noting that there is no evidence the creature was aboard the ship, and thereby quickly dispelling the idea that she ever saw any secret order to obtain one in the first place. Apparently the flight recorder cannot support any detail of the order, so the company can easily deny it was ever given (and even if it was, the officials at the time are long gone and can no longer be held responsible). So Ripley is forced to team up with the company again, which issues another Special Order 937 through the unethical executive Burke.
- #877
The blu-ray release of the Alien Quadrilogy box set (the first four films) has an unusual feature: when you eject the blu-ray from your player, it leaves a 'Weyland-Yutani: Building Better Worlds' advertisement on the TV screen. (When you insert and eject another disc, your screen returns to normal.) The advertisements are in different colors for each film.
- #878
The film owes a great deal to Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel 'Starship Troopers', of which James Cameron is a fan. In that novel, Earth's army is sent to fight an alien species called the 'Pseudo-Arachnids' (or 'Bugs') from the planet Klendathu, which has multiple castes (workers, warriors, brains and queens) like ants or termites. Ships can cover dozens of light years in weeks. Earth's army consists of both male and female soldiers. Hudson's question during orientation in Aliens, 'Is this a bug hunt?', is quoted from the novel. The power loader in Aliens was based on the combat exoskeletons in the book. The use of the term 'drop' also comes from Starship Troopers. Cameron told all the actors playing marines in Aliens to read the novel to understand their characters' background and dynamic.
- #879
- #880
- #881
- #882
The Alien series was a major inspiration for Nintendo's Metroid (1986) series. The first game features a female hero exploring planets alone while fighting dangerous biomechanoid creatures. They even named the series' villain (Ridley) after Alien (1979) director Sir Ridley Scott, and the second game, Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991), features a Metroid Queen.
- #883
- #884
(Around minute 21) The knife trick performed by Bishop (Lance Henriksen) is a tribute to Dark Star (1974), in which Boiler (Cal Kuniholm) performed a similar knife trick. Dark Star was co-written by and starred Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the story and screenplay of the original Alien (1979).
- #885
(Around minute 23) At the time of the film's release, the Alien species had no official name. The word 'xenomorph' used by Gorman was not a name, but simply a general term for 'unknown/alien life form' (from the Greek 'xeno-' meaning foreign/stranger and '-morph' meaning shape or form), much like the military's use of terms such as 'unidentified flying object' (UFO) or 'bogey' for unknown objects. This caused some confusion among fans, who did not understand how anyone other than Ripley could know the name of a species no one else had seen. In an interesting irony, the term 'Xenomorph' was so widely accepted by the fanbase that it was adopted as the semi-official name of the species (aside from the more casual 'Alien'). The Alien was later retroactively named 'Xenomorph XX121' in James A. Moore's 2014 novel 'Alien: Sea of Sorrows' and S. D. Perry's 'Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report', and after fans began to adopt this naming, the term was officially canonized in Alien: Romulus (2024).
- #886
- #887
- #888
- #889
(Around minute 13) While Carter Burke and Marine Lieutenant Gorman try to persuade Ripley to return to LV-426, they refer to the Colonial Marines as 'really tough guys'. 'Tough 'Ombres' is the name of the US Army's 90th Infantry Division, which fought in World Wars I and II. This reference is either an incredible coincidence or incredibly sly foreshadowing by the writers. During World War II, the 90th Infantry Division suffered one of the highest casualty rates among US Army divisions, with approximately 20,000 soldiers killed, wounded, captured or missing. One of the biggest factors contributing to the division's high casualty rate was poorly trained leadership. By referring to the Marines as 'really tough guys', Burke may be foreshadowing the outcome of the Marines' first encounter with the alien creatures and highlighting Lieutenant Gorman's lack of experience.
- #890
- #891
(Around minute 24) During the briefing, Private Vasquez grows impatient with Ripley's explanation about the Aliens and says, 'All I need to know is where they are.' Though probably unintentional, it references an old saying: 'Spartans do not ask how many the enemy are, only where they are.'
- #892
- #893
- #894
(Around minute 32) Hicks falls asleep during the descent. This is a clear nod to Mercury astronaut Major Gordon Cooper, the last American to fly alone in space and the one who made the longest solo flight. Cooper was so relaxed that he fell asleep in his capsule during the pre-launch countdown and had to be woken up so the launch could proceed.
- #895
(Around minute 1) In Alien (1979), H.R. Giger initially intended the openings on top of the Alien eggs to resemble a human vulva, but the explicitly sexual aspects of the design were quickly removed due to censorship concerns. He later designed the opening of the Derelict Ship, through which Dallas, Lambert and Ash pass, in a faintly vulvar shape. Giger's distinctly vaginal vision of the Aliens' origin may have somehow carried over into the sequel as well: the letter 'I' in the film's title transforms into an oval shape faintly resembling a vulva.
Career & Awards (21)
- #896
- #897
Sigourney Weaver's Best Actress Academy Award nomination for this movie was the first ever for an actress in a role in a "sci-fi action" movie (although Jane Alexander had previously been nominated for Best Actress for her role in the apocalyptic drama Testament (1983), and Melinda Dillon was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)).
- #898
- #899
The studio was so impressed with the movie that they held an active Oscar campaign for it, quite unique for a sci-fi/horror movie. With a total of five nominations, Aliens is the most Oscar-nominated movie of the franchise, and with two wins (Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Effects Editing), it is also the most decorated installment in the series.
- #900
Sigourney Weaver was paid $1 million to reprise her role as Ripley, a 30-fold increase in salary from Alien (1979). She also received a percentage of the film's gross. Her salary would increase with every subsequent Alien movie: $5.5 million for Alien³ (1992), and finally $11 million for Alien: Resurrection (1997), though the films subsequently became less and less profitable.
- #901
- #902
- #903
The success of this movie and his previous one, The Terminator (1984), allowed director James Cameron the right of final cut on his following movies. Although his next theatrical movie The Abyss (1989) was a slight financial disappointment, all the ones thereafter were solid box office hits that cemented his reputation as a blockbuster director.
- #904
- #905
- #906
- #907
- #908
William Hope (Gorman) voiced Dr. Groves in the 2010 video game Aliens vs. Predator (2010) and Marshall Waits in Alien: Isolation (2014) (coincidentally Gorman's incompetence share similar traits to Waits character). He also provided voice acting for the Predator characters in Aliens vs. Predator 2 (2001) and CR: Alien vs. Predator (2007). He also recorded voice work for T. Shannon in Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013), but ultimately the character did not appear in the final game.
- #909
- #910
Sigourney Weaver admitted that she was "surprised" at receiving an Academy Award nomination for this film, since it was rare for the Academy to recognize science fiction, horror, and action films. She reflected, "it was very unheard of - and still kind of would be. But I knew that [James Cameron] had created the structure of character and the story so that it was meaningful to people, and so I was delighted to be in a genre picture that didn't skip over all of that. And just for the story and everything else, regardless of the genre, it was embraced by the Academy."
- #911
James Cameron was so impressed by Linda Hamilton's acting in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) that he campaigned for her to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, although it was unsuccessful. In this film, Sigourney Weaver was nominated for Best Actress, but she lost to Marlee Matlin. Sigourney Weaver's character is named "Ellen Ripley" in Mr. Destiny (1990), Linda Hamilton's character was also named Ellen Ripley.
- #912
Aliens is the only film in the series for which special effects legend Stan Winston did the special effects, and won him his first Oscar. He was assisted by his employees Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr., with Woodruff making a brief and uncredited appearance as one of the salvage team members in the opening scene. For Alien³ (1992) and Alien: Resurrection (1997), the special effects torch was handed over to Gillis and Woodruff, who had started their own company Amalgamated Dynamics Inc. by that time, and Woodruff playing Aliens in both movies.
- #913
- #914
- #915
Contains a major spoiler — show
Gale Anne Hurd notes the most gratifying moment of her producing career was seeing the film on opening night in Hollywood and the uproar the audience went into when Ripley says the line, "Get away from her, you bitch." Mark Rolston, who had to be persuaded by Bill Paxton to come to the premiere, remembered the moment where the chestburster wiggles its way out of a body as the moment where the studio executives leapt out of their seats, and knew the film was going to be a hit.
- #916
Sigourney Weaver's Best Actress Oscar nomination for this film was the first nomination for a female actor in a sci-fi action film (although Jane Alexander had previously been nominated for Best Actress for her role in the apocalyptic drama Testament (1983), and Melinda Dillon had been nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)).
Life & Family (5)
- #917
After Bill Paxton's death in 2017, James Cameron reflected on working with him, "We... recognized the creative spark in each other and became fast friends. What followed was 36 years of making films together, helping develop each others projects, going on scuba diving trips together, watching each others kids growing up, even diving the Titanic wreck together in Russian subs. It was a friendship of laughter, adventure, love of cinema, and mutual respect. Bill wrote beautiful heartfelt and thoughtful letters, an anachronism in this age of digital shorthand. He took good care of his relationships with people, always caring and present for others. He was a good man, a great actor, and a creative dynamo."
- #918
- #919
- #920
- #921
Contains a major spoiler — show
Lance Henriksen was almost denied entry into the United Kingdom when he arrived for filming. He had been rehearsing Bishop's knife trick in the USA with several different types of knives since he didn't know which one James Cameron would use for filming. When he arrived in London he had just carelessly brought all the knives with him in his luggage, and the customs official was quite alarmed at what he saw.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work