“They mostly come out at night… mostly.”
Horror movie sequels are usually considered to be bad, an issue that usually comes from a lack of creativity when writing a sequel to a successful first film. Very rarely will you find a horror movie sequel that deviates from the original while still staying true to it, and it might not even be good — but if you did find a good one, it would probably be 1986’s “Aliens,” directed by James Cameron.
This is The Modern Monster, a weekly column about the things people are scared of. Every Friday, I talk about a true or fictional story that people find scary and discuss it in greater context while relating it back to our everyday lives.
Some of the success of “Aliens” likely comes from the change in director. Ridley Scott of “Alien” created a slasher-like film, with a single killer stalking a limited cast and slowly killing each one off. Cameron’s “Aliens” is an action film, with macho, gun-wielding military characters on a mission to exterminate some nasty alien bugs.
Both are great films that deserve a place in sci-fi history. “Alien” is thoughtful, careful, deliberate and reserved. “Aliens” is awesome.
Our hero Ellen Ripley, played by the brilliant Sigourney Weaver, is rescued from the escape pod she took to escape the xenomorph alien that had haunted the bowels of her ship, the Nostromo. She’s been in cryo-sleep ever since and has missed the past 57 years, and learns that in that time, her daughter Amanda passed away. This scene was tragically absent in the cut I watched last night, but one I had seen on the DVD version back home a few years ago.
Here is where we meet Burke, played by Paul Reiser. Burke is an employee of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, a big aspect of the “Alien” universe. After telling the company about her experience with the xenomorph, the execs don’t believe her. The planet where they had found the alien, LV-426, has been inhabited by colonists for the last 20 years, with no bug in sight.
But when the company suddenly loses communication with the planet, Burke asks Ripley to join him and the Marines Corps on a journey to LV-426 so Ripley can act as an adviser, just in case. Ripley agrees, as long as Burke promises that they will make no attempts to bring the alien back home for research purposes.
Ripley, Burke, the marines and an android named Bishop,played by Lance Henriksen, arrive on LV-426 and learn very quickly that xenomorphs are the ones to blame. They’ve killed every single colonist apart from a little girl named Newt, played by Carrie Henn, and the facility is crammed full of xenomorphs. The rescue mission turns quickly into an escape attempt, especially after the aliens kill the group’s pilots mid-flight, causing their ship to explode and leaving the group stranded.
“Aliens” doesn’t hammer in the themes of sexual violence in the same way “Alien” does. The most you’ll see this in “Aliens” is when Burke releases some facehuggers — crab-like aliens that implant an egg into a victim, which later bursts out of the victim’s chest and grows into a full xenomorph — into the room Ripley and Newt are sleeping in. He does this because he wants to bring evidence of the aliens back to Weyland-Yutani in the hopes that they’ll make him rich in return. And if Ripley won’t let him bring an alien back, then he’s going to bring one back inside of someone else.
In terms of the story “Alien” was trying to tell, Burke’s decision to release these facehuggers into the room is an allegory for attempted rape, especially when you consider his decision to sic them on a young girl and her mother figure. And Burke sees this rape as a method of gaining power.
Speaking of that “mother figure” situation going on: Ripley so clearly and obviously loves Newt when she first meets her. They find her hiding in a crawlspace and the marines make an attempt to grab her and forcibly pull her free, but Ripley climbs in so she can talk to Newt before scooping her up and removing her. For the rest of the movie, she’s the one primarily looking after Newt and comforting her when it’s needed.
If “Alien” was the worst thing to ever happen to Ripley, “Aliens” is an apology. She was left the only survivor of an encounter with nature’s greatest killing machine, with a large helping of trauma and no family. In “Aliens,” she gets to kill the killing machine and find a connection with a young girl and an attractive man.
I’m usually against romance in horror movies — why are you thinking about love in a drastic survival situation? — but Hicks and Ripley are done correctly. Nothing about their romance is outright but it’s obvious that they’re flirting with one another. A worse movie would’ve had a make out or sex scene and Hicks would’ve saved Ripley at the end of the film, but none of that happens. Hicks spends the last act of the film unconscious, and Ripley’s the hero.
So if “Aliens” gives Ripley her agency back and doesn’t focus on the themes of sexual violence that were so prevalent in “Alien,” what makes it a horror movie?
“Alien” features only one xenomorph but “Aliens” has dozens. The thing that destroyed Ripley’s life is everywhere, with brothers and sisters who want to finish the job the first one started. She’s not just facing one force of evil; she’s trying to survive an onslaught.
Even with this burden, Ripley saves more people than just herself. Newt, Hicks and Bishop all survive thanks to her heroic actions — those actions being hopping into a mechanical exosuit to then shove the massive Alien Queen out into space. And these survivors aren’t just random characters. Ripley has made personal connections with all three of them.
Bishop specifically is a notable connection. One of the villains of “Alien” is the android Ash, who is also associated with sexual violence, much like the xenomorph. Ash is responsible for allowing the xenomorph to take over the Nostromo, so Ripley immediately distrusts Bishop for his android nature. And yet, Bishop never expects her to and never forces friendship upon her.
Bishop waits, he does what’s right and he helps save the group. He even keeps Newt safe while Ripley battles the Alien Queen. And for that, Ripley can accept him. She might never get over the trauma Ash caused, but she can move on to the next thing.
When the marines are first attacked by the xenomorphs, Lieutenant Gorman — played by William Gordon — freezes up, which results in the deaths of multiple marines. Ripley freaks out too, but not for long. She knows these people need her, and if Gorman and Burke are just going to stand there, it’s up to her. So, she drives an armored truck into the building to save the people left alive.
“Alien” takes and takes and takes from Ripley. Even in her most vulnerable moments, the xenomorph stalks her, waiting for a moment to cocoon her in the hopes of making her another host for the little chestburster. In “Aliens,” Ripley takes it all back. It’s a horror movie, but it’s not nearly as scary as “Alien.” And that’s because while watching it, I’ve learned to trust Ripley implicitly. And she trusts herself too.