My Favourite Movies: Aliens (Special Edition)

57 years after the events of the original Alien movie Office Ripley is picked up by a deep space salvage crew and returned to Earth. After finding out that her daughter has died she is investigated to determine the facts surrounding the destruction of her cargo ship the Nostromo and subsequently demoted. Meanwhile, on orders from Earth a family of prospectors travels to the crash site Ripley’s team found nearly six decades previously. This act unleashes the horror that Ripley knows all too well. When the Colonial Marines are called in to investigate the loss of contact with the colony Ripley is coerced into joining them on their rescue mission. But by the time they arrive the worst has happened and hundreds of aliens have hatched. Can the Marines with their awesome firepower survive the onslaught of creatures the like of which they have never experienced before?

When I first saw this movie on its release in 1986 I was quite honestly awestruck. I had seen the previous horror flick Alien and enjoyed it very much but the sequel Aliens was kick-ass hardcore science fiction. The combat sequences just totally amazed me. This, I believed, was exactly how combat SF should be! With an excellent cast – led by Sigourney Weaver as the iconic Ellen Ripley – and outstanding special effects this instantly became on of my top 5 all time favourite films and for a long while my favourite SF film of all time. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen this movie but on watching it again recently I realised that I know whole chunks of it word for word. The highlights for me – apart from the already mentioned combat scenes – are the acting of Michael Biehn as (only a grunt) Hicks, Lance Henricksen as the artificial person Bishop, Bill Paxton as the complainer Hudson and the fantastic Jenette Goldstein as Vasquez.

This film has (probably literally) burnt itself into my consciousness. I use some of the lines from it in everyday life – “Marines.... we are leaving” – and cannot help thinking of the scene where Ripley and Hicks are in a lift waiting for the doors to close (followed by an Alien trying to force its way in) every time I press a lift button and then wait….. for the door to close! This is an outstanding SF film by a director at the top of his game and is still the best of the Alien series by far….. and I so want a pulse rifle for Christmas!