Aliens

Let's make a sequel that pluralizes the title and adds a ton more aliens....and the Queen!

I was fortunate enough to watch Aliens this afternoon. After a few hours of collecting my thoughts and running errands, I’m ready to write. Holy freaking cow! Aliens came out in 1986 and it’s more than just a sequel, it is a genre-defining movie! Alien was Jaws and a slasher horror movie in space. Aliens took that formula and made it a war movie. The reward? James Cameron’s film is considered one of the greatest sequels of all-time. It is in the same tier as The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (another Cameron film), and The Dark Knight. I have to admit that I’ve always found it funny that they just pluralized Alien for the sequel title! I have so many thoughts and I’m so excited to write this so let’s do a few categories, including a couple new ones!

The Poster:

I’m actually not going to rate this poster very highly. It’s a 6/10. My disappointment is surprising because it depicts my favorite scene in the movie. The poster for Alien was just so iconic with its mystery, the green glow, and the tagline: “In space no one can hear you scream.” This one portrays Ripley holding Newt and they’re surrounded by eggs, and maybe the Queen is there? The tagline “This time it’s war” just doesn’t excite me either. It’s ok. They say don’t judge a book by its cover. There are plenty of other movies with better posters and amazing trailers and they’re not very good. You’d rather have an iconic movie any day of the week.

The Ellen Ripley Badass Scale:

This movie could be called The Ascendancy of Ellen Ripley. It is HER movie from beginning to end. We pick up right after we left off from the first film…sorta. She and the cat are discovered in their escape pod by a scavenging crew. We find out from a dream that she was out there for 57 years. There’s been sometime between the events on the Nostromo and this movie. We discover a woman with PTSD struggling to sleep after the traumatic experiences with the first Xenomorph. Unfortunately, she has to brief the C-Team version of the intergalactic Waystar Royco board of The Company (That’s a Succession reference if you didn’t catch it). Basically, a corporate board of some of the worse and most incompetent suits imaginable. Anyways, Ripley is coaxed into traveling back to LV-426, to help annihilate the Xenomorphs. LV-426 is the planet where the first alien encounter occurred. Ripley joins a group of Colonial Marines, who aren’t exactly Seal Team Six. She’s not afraid to tell them how it is. She meets a young girl who has survived on her own. The little girl is Newt and she’s the rising star of the movie. It struck me when they first met that they are the only two in this movie that share the same suffering. They have both lost people that they care about to these monsters. Ripley and Newt’s relationship is at the center of this film’s greatness. I believe they both play a role in helping each other heal.

Ripley ascends as the action star that she is in the last act of the film. She learns how to use the weapons at her disposal and she faces the fear of the Xenomorphs head on. Shoot, she taped a flamethrower and a machine gun together when she loaded up. She stared into the eyes of the Queen, seemed to negotiate a stalemate to escape, then burned the eggs to hell! Sigourney Weaver received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and it was well deserved! She was akin to LeBron James leading the Cleveland Cavaliers back from a 3-1 deficit in the 2016 NBA Finals. BLOCK BY RIPLEY! 10/10 on the Badass Scale!

The Curry Foley Award for Hitting for the Cycle:

I LOVE a good baseball analogy for life. If you don’t know what hitting for the cycle means, it’s when a batter hits a single, double, triple, and a home run in the same game. It is a pretty rare and difficult feat. According to Baseball Almanac, Curry Foley hit for the first cycle in history in 1882. He played for the Buffalo Bisons. Bill Paxton’s Private Hudson hits for the cycle in this movie, a hell of a performance! From “Stop your grinning’ and drop your linen!” to “Game over, man!” he’s the most quotable character in the movie. He also goes out the only proper way of losing your life in an alien attack: screaming, yelling, and cussing them out while you shoot away. Enjoy the supercut of his scenes below!

The Michael Biehn Award for Being Michael Biehn:

I’ve always known Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese, the father of humanity’s savior in the Terminator movies. In Aliens, he plays Corporal Hicks, the best of the best of the Colonial Marines. The Colonial Marines are a ragtag group that remind you of pirates. Corporal Hicks stands out as a real soldier. He has a good head on his shoulders and he knows how to fight. There’s also some chemistry there between him and Ripley. Michael Biehn gets to star as two incredible action heroes of the 1980’s sci-fi genre. For that alone, he gets his own award.

The Roman Roy Award for Being The Worst Person in the Room:

This is another Succession reference. This award goes to Burke, the corporate shill of The Company. He tried to murder Ripley and Newt. Screw that guy.

Ripley said it best: “You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them f***ing each other over for a goddamn percentage.”

Scariest Scene:

My stomach dropped when Ripley rescues Newt then notices she’s surrounded by fresh eggs. Not only are we afraid of the eggs, but the Queen is there too. My storytelling can’t do it justice, so watch it below:

An Appreciation of the Director:

James Cameron, the man deserves to be in the pantheon of directors! He takes Ridley Scott’s vision and turns it into a completely different type of movie…and it works! He has only directed 22 movies, but there are plenty of classics on the resume. He has also directed two of the greatest sequels of all-time (we’re not counting Piranha II: The Spawning). Here’s the resume:

• The Terminator

• Aliens

• The Abyss

• Terminator 2: Judgment Day

• True Lies

• T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (a hella fun experience at Universal Studios)

• Titanic

• Avatar

Popcorn With Zenny:

My main man is warming up to the job of being my assistant.

The Main Theme of Aliens:

Movies can elicit so many emotions out of us. I saw a deeper meaning in Alien that roused up some righteous anger. Aliens is a different type of film. It’s so damn fun. When we get our popcorn and find our seat in the theater (or at home), we want to escape reality for a couple hours. Aliens takes us to a whole new world. I just had a lot of fun escaping for a bit.

Thank you:

Thank you so much for reading! I really hope you’re enjoying these. I feel like I’m still finding my voice as a writer, but this has been a lot of fun. You’re just one of a handful of subscribers and I’m so grateful that you’re one of them. Maybe this thing grows and more people read, maybe it doesn’t. We’ll just keep on writing and reading about the movies we love!