Movie Spoiler ALIENS

In commemoration of the "not Alien Prequel" Prometheus, this is the second of the four-part movie spoiler summary series.  When we last left off in Alien, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) successfully escaped on the shuttle Narcissus, having blown up the tainted mothership Nostromo, along with the refinery plant processing twenty million tons of ore, wasting billions of dollars, I'm sure.  She had just sent off the menacing title beast to outer space and entered stasis or hibernation mode in preparation for her return trip to Earth and a company that didn't care if she came back dead or alive.  However, when they find out she's arriving without an alien specimen, they probably prefer her dead.  Rising talent James Cameron took the reigns on this sequel, before he jumped the shark and became self-designated "king of the world."

One can make a lot of comparisons between the first Alien and Aliens.  The basic plot is the same: ten little Indians in outer space.  Except this time, there are more Indians and an endless supply of aliens to knock them off.  But it doesn't stop there, as you will recognize a lot of the same tropes.  You have the non-alien villain, which, this time, is a greedy, self-serving human verses a mis-wired and manipulated android.  They both try to sick an alien on Ripley.  Both androids get torn in half, though you could argue that Cameron improves upon the concept and is quite innovative with the situation, having Bishop's top half hang on for dear life as the air lock tries to suck him out.

There is the time-sensitive finale, as well as the last-minute surprise, involving an air-lock sending Ripley's nemesis off into space.  And, even in the small details, we get not one but two panty-shots of our heroine.  There is pornography on the ship, as well as peaceful shots of the hibernating Ripley.  We even get another full-body shot of the the alien, but in a different scenario, as well, there are face-huggers and chest-bursters aplenty.

Yet, despite these similarities, big and small, they're either given a new twist or are pretty negligible.  Instead of adopting the same look as its predecessor, Cameron veers away from the horror creepy slightly and adds a little B-movie flavor amongst some rather admirable production values.  In the original, Scott made every vessel and outer space shot appear real and epic and while not all of that was lost in the sequel, some of Cameron's vehicles seem a little wonky at times.  Yet, it still works and helps lend his film its own original look.  His film also has the advantage of massive firepower to battle the army of creatures, and while there is more gore, explosion and death, the few kills that really matter carry an emotional weight to them we didn't see in the first film.

And, at the heart of the story is the mother/daughter relationship between Ripley and Newt.  The storyline of her real child feels imposed, probably because it is, yet the script sells it and weaves it quite well into the introduction of Newt.  It gives Ripley a new and important layer while providing investment for the audience to sort through the bloodbaths.  It's a shame, a sentiment shared by many, that the followup Aliens3 should so carelessly dispatch of Newt, as well as Bishop and Hicks from the get-go.

James Cameron and that fancy, awe-inspiring equipment of his

Movie Spoiler Summary
Having drifted through the core system undetected, by chance, a radar from a salvage team picks up a signal from the shuttle Narcissus.  The shuttle is examined and bordered by a crew who discover the hibernating Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and her cat Jones.  The men take off their headgear and one quips, “There goes our salvage, guys.” 

Ripley wakes up in a hospital room of the gateway station.  Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) pays Ripley a visit and informs her that she has been asleep for 57 years.  She’s actually experiencing a dream which turns into a nightmare as a chest-burster pops out of her abdomen.

The next day, Burke coaches Ripley on a hearing involving the feds, the interstellar commerce commission, colonial administration, and insurance companies.  He also informs her that Ripley’s daughter Amanda died at age 66 two years ago.  During the hearing conducted by Van Leuwen (Pau Maxwell), while pictures of her old crew display in the background, she is accused of destroying the $40M M-Class star freighter Nostromo, as well as its cargo ship for no justifiable reason.  Lifeboat data couldn’t find remnants of the creature, nor record of the alien lifeforms from the planetoid LV-426 to corroborate Ripley's story thereby rendering it false.  They suspend her ICC license as a commercial flight officer without criminal charges filed and release her on her own recognizance for a six month period of psychometric probation including monthly review by an ICC psychiatric technician.  The case is closed on the bereft Ripley.  Van Leuwen offhandedly informs her of the terraformers who have been on LV-426 for 20 years to make air breathable (referred to as a shake and bake colony).  

On LV-426, at their camp named Hadley’s Hope, the planet engineers work on the atmospheric processor plant.  Two men named Lydecker (Bill Armstrong) and Simpson (Mac McDonald) discuss an expedition seeking clearance while children play amongst their feet.  The team consists of a mother (Holly De Jong), father (Jay Benedict), son Timmy (Christopher Henn) and daughter Rebecca “Newt” Jorden (Carrie Henn) who discover the alien ship first found by Dallas, Kane, and Lambert in the first Alien.  A face-hugger attacks the father and the mother calls for help.  Though we won't see it, this is the beginning of the end for Hadley Hope's 158 residents (minus one).   

Lt. Gorman (William Hope) escorts Burke to Ripley’s room enlisting her help involving the missing family.  They want her to work as an advisor to guide a group of colonial marines.  She refuses, but he promises reinstatement of her license.  She wakes up from a nightmare that evening and tells Burke she’ll accompany the mission if the final outcome will be to destroy the alien colony.   Well, it won't be if Burke can help it.  

The U.S.S. Sulaco

This crew isn't into Asian porn, apparently, like the last crew

Unlike the first film, we get the first of two panty scenes

And, the romance begins with yummy Michael Biehn

After they reach their destination, the team wakes up.  Sgt. Apone (Al Matthews) starts whipping them into shape.

Hudson: Hey, Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?

Vasquez: No, have you?

Everyone loves to give the mouthy Hudson a rise

They eat in the cafeteria.  Bishop (Lance Henriksen) performs a knife trick on Pvt. Hudson (Bill Paxton) and Ripley freaks out when she learns that Bishop is an android.  Gorman and Apone have Ripley inform the troops of what they can expect.

U.S.S. Sulaco approaches LV-426

Anything you can do, I can do better;
I can do anything better than you

They prepare their dropship for liftoff, which includes Ripley operating a loader to everyone’s amazement.  Ready for their assignment, the marines load into an APC (armored personnel carrier) contained within the dropship.

During the landing piloted by Cpl. Ferro (Colette Hiller), they find out that Gorman isn’t a seasoned combat lieutenant.  They coast above the atmospheric processor, which is in intact, but with little sign of human life. Once the drop is complete, the marines drive off in the APC before Ferro flies the dropship away.  The troops get out and bypass the compound’s electrical security system.

Ripley gets startled a few times before the audience

Using the motion trackers, they begin to pick up a signal inside the premises.  At first, it turns out to be lab rats.  Through Hicks’ (Michael Biehn) camera (how hot is that?), Ripley spots an acid-melted area in a grating.  The crew finds even bigger crevices.  Gorman incorrectly declares the area secured and drives the vehicle to the South Lock where they all enter the building.  They stumble upon a lab with several containers holding various face-huggers.  The motion trackers start acting up while the second team is in Deep Lock.  One of the aliens crosses their path.  

They discover little Newt hiding under the grating.  Ripley chases her into a secret room and comforts her.  During an examination, she doesn’t have much to share, until she sits with Ripley one-on-one.  Bishop conducts further studies on a face-hugger.  Hicks locates all of the aliens in the main cooling towers.

The team drives through Access Ramp 31.  They begin their descent on foot while Gorman, Ripley, Burke, and Newt monitor their activity from the vehicle.  Ripley informs Gorman that the team is negotiating their way through primary heat exchangers and if they use their weapons, they could blow themselves up.  He orders Apone to collect artillery magazines and grenades.  They start to find bodies encrusted in the pods lining the walls, including a live one, who dies after a chest-burster erupts from her abdomen.

Burke is a little turned on by Ripley's leadership

Pedestrian crossing: One Point

Cute Newt gets all the laughs

When the baby alien is destroyed with a flamethrower, it wakens the other aliens surrounding them who begins their assault.  Cpl. Dietrich (Cynthia Dale Scott) is the first to get assaulted and Pvt. Frost (Ricco Ross) is burned and thrown over a balcony by friendly fire via flame thrower.  A backpack on fire containing explosives blows up and knocks over Pvt. Crowe (Tip Tipping).  Pvt. Wierzbowski (Trevor Steedman) dies.  Pvt. Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) and others begin unleashing fire from the artillery they didn't surrender to Apone.  Apone dies.  Gorman realizes he has lost all audio contact.  Ripley takes over and drives the vehicle in to save the troops.  While killing an alien, Pvt. Drake (Mark Rolston) gets splattered with acid and dies during a commotion with a fire.  Another guy gets hit with acid during another alien kill, before Ripley is able to drive the vehicle away.  She manages to singlehandedly fend off another by slamming on the brakes and running him over, before they escape the compound.  Gorman incurs a concussion during the melee. 

That’s it, man.  Game over, man.  Game over. 

Cpl. Hicks, who is next in command, agrees with Ripley to leave the planet and nuke it from orbit.  Unfortunately, when Cpl. Ferro and Pvt. Spunkmeyer (Daniel Kash) lift off from the atmospheric processor, they have an alien on board and crash the dropship.  Having ground down the wheels to the axel, they can no longer use the APC to travel around the planetoid either.  

Hey, maybe you haven’t been keeping up on current events,
but we just got our asses kicked, pal.

The stranded crew takes shelter in the compound, having to now wait seventeen days for automatic rescue.

This little girl survived longer than that,
with no weapons and no training, right?

Ripley puts a frantic Hudson to work by ordering him to look for blueprints.  Bishop leaves to attend to Gorman in the med lab.  Ripley identifies a sub-tunnel the aliens have been using to access the atmospheric processor and devises a plan to barricade specific entrances so they can isolate any possible attacks from the aliens in only a few places.  Ripley tucks Newt in for bed in the med lab.  At the lab, the crew discuss the parasitic face-huggers.  She orders Bishop to destroy them, but Burke has advised him differently.  She argues with Burke, whom she has learned could have warned the terraformers about the aliens. 

An alarm goes off and they start firing multiple rounds of artillery at the aliens until it’s depleted.  Bishop points out the emergency venting that indicates the planet will blow up in four hours.  He volunteers to summon another dropship via remote.

The artillery goes off killing the aliens at the pressure door.  Hicks orders Vasquez and Hudson to walk the parameter.  Ripley and Hicks make a suicide pack if the worst case scenario were to happen and then he teaches her how to use a grenade launcher, while they flirt.  Gorman wakes up under Burke’s presence.

Not unlike the tentacles of a face-hugger

I need a hero ...

I"m holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night

From one face-hugger ...

... to another.

Ripley checks out Newt in the med lab, only to find her underneath the bed.  Bishop enables a dropship launch from remote.  Ripley discovers that they’re not alone in the med lab.  As well, Burke has locked them in and diverted attention from their peril.  A resourceful Ripley calls attention to their plight by setting off the sprinkler system prompting Hicks and the others to save the two.  

I don’t know which species is worse. 
You don’t see them fucking each other over for a god damn percentage.

Ripley explains to the others what Burke’s plans were, which included killing all of them while transporting an impregnated Ripley and Newt.

The party has arrived

The aliens cut the power and begin surrounding their human prey.  They seal themselves in, but realize that the aliens are right above them.  The battle begins.  One of the aliens takes Hudson, who gets neither a valiant and/or remarkable death.  Burke, who hides in a room and cuts off the team, becomes an alien snack.  Ripley, Newt and the rest of the team escape through the vents.  

One of my favorite shots

Gorman attends to Vasquez who has just been infected by acid from killing an alien.  When they find themselves trapped, Gorman engages a grenade.

The explosion causes Newt to fall through the cracks of a ventilation wheel.  She slips farther down a shaft.  Ripley and Hicks locate her beneath some grating, but lose her after breaking through, as she had to escape an alien attack.  A creature approaches Ripley and Hicks in an elevator and Hicks gets splattered with acid in the process of killing it. 

Bishop controls the ship via remote to a safe landing.  They fly into the processor to locate Newt.  Ripley arms herself with weaponry.

R: Hicks, don’t let him leave.

H: We ain’t going anywhere.

R: See you Hicks

H: Dwayne, it’s Dwayne.

R: Ellen.

H: Don’t be gone long, Ellen.

Confronting the queen

Cocked ...

... and ready.

She finds Newt’s locater and thinks she’s dead, but she’s actually trapped inside of a nest and starts screaming when a face-hugger emerges from a pod.  Ripley locates her and saves her from the nest.  On their way out, Ripley realizes they are in the middle of a pod farm presided over by the queen alien and her minions.  During a standoff, Ripley backs away with Newt and then takes down the queen and her nest.  Ripley escapes with Newt via an elevator back up to the ship, while fending off the queen, who has escaped the destruction.  The queen alien follows them, but they’re saved just in time by Bishop.  As they fly away, the planetoid LV-426 blows up behind them.

Get away from her, you bitch!

Ripley holds on for dear life while defying the suction 
required to pull the alien to her death

At the dock, the queen, who stowed away on the dropship unnoticed, attacks Bishop and then sets her sights on Ripley and Newt.  Ripley uses the loader to fight the queen and lead her into the airlock, where they both fall in.  She manages to escape and sends the queen off into space.  She tucks everyone in and they all enter stasis mode.

Three of these characters who lived through Aliens
would be killed immediately in the next film

poll by twiigs.com




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