The debate rages on about whether the sequel is better than the original, but one thing that I think most people can agree on is that the first two Alien films are classic sci-fi films.
Both great, the first one is slow burn sci-fi horror, atmospheric and more creepy, this one is like an action movie and faster pace, and a bigger production.
I like Alien for introducing the story and Aliens for taking it up a notch. One sets the other up so both are important. They definitely lost all momentum in A3 and onwards. Ended up becoming a purely nerdy thought experiment.
@ThaUltimateHunter It wasn't the editing that bothered me but the way they killed off Newt. It broke the lore of the story and didn't advance it at all. I understand if they did it because they couldn't use the actor in real life. That's a shame. Would have been better just not to do the movie at all. In the comics Newt lives on and has adventures of her own.
Ripley is what people should aspire to be: Strong, intelligent, and adaptive when they need to be, vulnerable enough to admit they need someone to help at times.
Yeah, I'm so tired of Gen Z saying there are no strong woman characters. There always have been. Stop bitching just for bitching. Princess Lea was no wimp either
Paul Reiser is the actor from this and "Stranger Things", and here's a fun fact: his performance was so believable in this that even his own mother was glad when he met his fate!
His entire character in Stranger Things played off the role from Aliens. You were supposed to be suspicious of him until it turned out that he's "an ok guy".
@@DzinkyDzink It's funny, because his role in this film was based on the same premise: he'd been known for TV sitcoms and was considered a likeable guy, so he was cast as the villain because people's initial reaction would be to trust him.
Lt. Ellen Ripley is the personification of a strong woman on film. She's a woman that doesn't need to beat the crap and kill men to prove that she's a strong woman. She's a leader and a protector. Men will follow her because they trust her leadership. That is a good example of a strong woman on film.
@@lewas91 You mean where everyone is a competent person who does not do wildly stupid things? It is the age old battle of two starkly different philosophies. 1) A rising tide lifts all boats or 2) Life is a zero-sum game where in order for me to get a bigger piece of the pie others have to get less.
In the extended version Ripley had a daughter that died before she returned home. Which I think make her relationship with Newt have so much more depth.
Yeah trade off of losing the scene with Ripley's daughter dying before she got back and missing the scene that spoils what happens on the colony. If there's a cut that includes the daughter scene and axes the colony scene, that is the best of the bunch.
@@allrequiredfields nope, Sarah started to became a human terminator at the end of T1, we can see that in T2. She's as lethal as a human can be, Ripley becomes that only in Alien: Resurrection.
Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, Beatrix Kiddo, Imperator Furiosa, etc... all these Hollywood heroines have one thing in common: they're all characters. If you want a true female action star, gotta look into those who got established in Hong Kong: Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Rothrock, Yukari Oshima, Moon Lee, etc...
Ladies, great reaction. The reason Ripley could drive the loader is that was her job on the space station after she was rescued and lost her flight status, so the technology is not in question. I adore this movie, and Ripley's character is a role model not only for women, but for men as well.
I imagine also that being the third in command of the Nostromo meant she was intelligent, adaptable, and competent, so while she had to learn to operate some new gear in her new job she's definitely the kind of person who can learn quick and do what needs to be done to make ends meet. I totally agree that Ripley is a role model for competence, it's very clear she's absolutely terrified after her previous encounter with the Xenomorph so her final actions of bravery feel much more meaningful, she's afraid but dealing with the fear and not just unafraid due to false confidence or ignorance of the threat.
@@G1NZOUIf you're a Warrant Flight Officer than is rated to pilot a starfreighter, learning to be a Power Loader operator will be no problem. It is akin to being an Airline Pilot who loses his flight license and has to make do and retrain as a Warehouse Forklift Operator. Nothing to do with being in Third-in-Command of the Nostromo. Her place in the Chain-of-Command was contingent on being the Flight Officer in the first place.
@@Ryan_Christopher Yes I agree, my point was she was already competent and well trained, and as a flight officer in general in modern day is meant to be adaptable, adjusting to be a forklift operator and transferring common sense skills like culture of safety and checklists would be a piece of cake.
FUNFACT about Carrie Henn aka Newt. It was her first and only camera role she ever took. She became a grade school teacher instead but from time to time she gets fan letters and kids tell her, her praent's loved her in Aliens. James Cameron was more cautious about the film environment toward Carrie than her actual parent's, meaning he was on her side all the time making her as comfortable as possible. Also she said that Sigorney became like her actual 2nd mom for the time and she loves her. Its all said in the cast reunion at comicon 2016. RIP Bill "Hudson" Paxton 🥺😢
Jenette also really didn't do much in hollywood after this movie. She was so great in it i expected much more out of her, but wasn't to be. She did a bunch of cameos and 2 bit roles but based on her in Aliens i would have thought she would have a much bigger career. Good looking, curvy, young, and her first role such a good one? Nope.
'Get away from her you b**ch' - just an iconic line from one of the best leads in a sci fi action franchise ever (maybe THE best). Terminator next for sure, another amazing leading lady with an equally fantastic (better) sequel..also from Jimmy Cams
The Directors cut is better in every way in my opinion. They use the few extra minutes here and there very well. They get into Ripley's Daughter who died 2 years before she is found, so the mommy reference makes much more sense. They show the outpost functioning before the alien ship is found. And you get a just a few more minutes of character development before the marines start dropping like flies. ;p
It's cool to me that Cameron got his start with an FX demo if a woman in an exoskeleton fighting a robot. Which kinda made it into his first two mainstream movies in a way.
Ripley is such a good leader. when Hudson starts freaking out she gives him a simple but important task, enough to get his mind off things, isolate him from the group for a bit so he stops freaking them out and get his head back in the game while feeling important to the group. Excellent game plan and reaction.
Ripley learned to drive a power loader when she was working on the docks when they took away her flight officer status. Burke mentioned she was driving loaders in her current job.
Personally I always had a bit of an issue with this only because it had been many years realtime since she had used one and based on how things update and change in reality it only makes sense that the power loader would have had multiple updates and changes over 50+ years
@@stormywaters1565 it hadn't been many years. She took a job at the docks because she could no longer be a flight officer (remember Burke saying he knew it was the best job she could get). She learned to use a loader for the job at the docks. So, she only used a loader for the time between when she lost her officer position and they came asking her to return to the planet. Though they don't specify how much time that was, it was obviously enough time for her to achieve a class 2 rating on the power loader.
@@richardb6260 ah yeah ok I was always puzzled by that but makes sense now. The movie doesn't do a great job of making it evident a good bit of time had passed between her return home and departure.
Seeing this in '86 was the first time I'd experienced an audience cheering during a film. There were a number of moments that got a reaction but the two I remember are Hicks diving through the med-lab window and the reveal of Ripley in the loader.
Alien 3 is actually great. Purely for Charles Dance’ performance. One of the greatest English actors of all time. And resurrection was ok. We don’t talk about AVP though.
Ripley is one of my favourite characters/heros in all movie history, she is up there with James Bond and Indiana Jones. Just a shame the character/story suffered after Aliens, but I have trouble deciding which of the two I like best as they are both excellent in their own way.
I'm not so sure about that. What I saw of it in the making of doc looked as much like puppetry as animatronics. That's not to say that the puppetry wasn't great if that is a closer approximation of the technique used.
It's not animatronic. It was a puppeted. There's a great documentary about the making of this film, and they discuss the creation of this "puppet" creature.
@@aaronsynra6867 Depends on what model... There were 4. 1 Large full puppet. 1 Large 1/2 stationary with animatronics. 1 Small puppet. 1 Small figurine. The documentary on the special Edition only shows the large full puppet as it was the most impressive. There are third party documentaries (i think Adam Savage did one) where you see parts of the others and it's fully discussed.
I mean Aliens and Jurassic Park is in a class of their own when it comes to practical effects. But, JP is a lot better when it comes to actual animatronics, Alien/s just did minimal footage and dark lighting to make it look good. The design of the Xenomorph is unmatched though
Poor Jonesy. Imagine being a cat from Ripley's traumatic past, thrown 57 years forword into a whole new feline world. Unable to identify with other cats. Poor Jonesey :(
The first one is a horror movie. This one is more of a pure action movie. Which one people like more usually (but not always) depends on their genre preference.
A lesser director tasked with making a sequel to an all-time classic would have just recycled the original. James Cameron took a risk by making it an action movie with totally new characters and upping the ante by adding more aliens and the queen.
This film actually goes from being an action movie halfway to a survival movie once they get stranded on the planet and the rest of the film is them trying to survive and escape. Predator did the same thing the first half of the films are textbook actions films, while the second half devolves quickly into survival-horror
When James Cameron did something a little different with the Alien franchise, everyone loved it. When Jean-Pierre Jeunet did something a little different with the Alien franchise, everyone hated it. Except me. 😄
Alien: Horror Aliens: Action Alien... I don't know how I'm supposed to pronounce a title with superscript in it's name -- like is it Alien cubed? Alien to the third power? Alien (small high pitched voice) *three*... so I already feel hopeless and depressed: Nihilist Porn
By the end, it's pretty clear Ripley was irrational and would have done anything to save Newt, or kill herself trying. She had no personal investment in the soldiers.
I LOVE the mother vs. mother aspect of the storyline. It shows both are all in. Also Ripley an adoptive daughter right after she found out her biological daughter passed away. ❤
The extended cut is much, *much* better than the theatrical release (which is still amazing). The reasons why are: 1) More character development for Ripley, which adds more meaning to her deep connection with Newt. 2) Extra scenes at the colony, which show how thriving it was before it gets overrun. That makes the scene where the marines find Hadley's Hope completely deserted much more sinister. 3) Scenes with the colonists finding the alien ship, which shows it broken up by seismic activity on the planet. 4) The sentry gun turret scenes. Apart from just being incredibly cool, the sentry turrets explain why the aliens don't try to bust their way through the barricades just like they did with the colonists. After failing to get past the turrets, the aliens shut off power to the medlab and then come in through the ceiling, which shows how smart and adaptable they are.
Yea, the extended version gives you a little more background, though not much. The biggest difference were the automatic cannons they used first on the planet. I really liked those :-)
I largely agree. I could do without the colonists finding the ship, though. I find that it kneecaps some of the mystery when the marines start to investigate Hadley's Hope. Which I'll admit doesn't really make sense. I mean - we all know what's going on. Kinda. But it just feels to me like its more interesting touching down not having seen anything about the colonists at this point. It's a fair point about showing a thriving colony. It does make the empty spaces feel like they should be feeling less utilitarian and more lived in. Maybe if the edit showed the colony and stopped at the discovery scene. Dunno. YMMV.
@@arandomnamegoeshere Yeah, I get your point about the colonists finding the ship and the dad getting facehugged. It does undercut the suspense way too early. The only thing is, it's really cool to see the alien ship partly broken open, and there wouldn't be any reason to show it in the movie otherwise. One thing that the studios seem to have overlooked, is that the alien ship is *still* there on LV-426. There's no mention of the colonists blowing it up, and the ship is at least 100 miles away from the colony site (because it took the salvage team a week to get there).. so it wasn't destroyed when the reactor blows up. They could have used the alien ship as a source of eggs for the sequel, instead of the ridiculous plot hole egg that starts Alien 3. At least the magic egg makes Alien 3 and all the dross that came after it non-canon.
One of the best Sci-fi Action movies ever made! It was nominated for 7 Oscars: Best Actress, Sigourney Weaver Best Sound Editing, Don Sharpe Best Sound Mixing, Nicholas De Musserier Best Visual Effects, Stan Winston, John Richardson, Robert Skotak Best Film Editing Ray Lovejoy Best Original Score, James Horner Best Production Design, Peter Lamont. It won Best Visual Effects and Sound Editing. It made $193 million dollars ($714 million dollars today) against an $18 million dollar budget. Its regarded as one of the best Sci-fi Action movies ever made.
@@reesebn38 The writers specifically wrote the main role to be non gender specific. Why they ended up choosing Sigourney, I don't know, but it turned out to be a genius move.
@@riveraharper8166 shainewhite. I've seen this message on every Aliens reaction I've watched. I was just wondering if they had it saved and just pasted it in. Lol, it's cool though.
Fun fact: Jennette Goldstein (Vasquez) is a good friend of James Cameron. It's hard to believe she was the same woman to play the irish mother in the movie "Titanic". She's also in at least one more James Cameron film, but based on the comments, I'm assuming you haven't seen it yet, so...no spoilers.
The line in the movie when Hudson says "She heard Aliens and thought it meant Illegal Aliens and signed up" is an inside joke with the Cast about Jennette. When the casting came out she thought the Movie was about Illegal Aliens and showed up dressed like a Migrant for the Casting call......
@@shannanmuire The Dark Horse comics continuity makes it especially easy to ignore the following (comparatively terrible) later movies. Absolutely more enjoyable than the grim and repetitive story elements sprinkled into the later films. Would far prefer the Alien franchise had gone down that pathway rather than what we got from the horrific Alien 3 or even the prequel Prometheus. As it stands, the one movie I do like that feels like it belongs to the Alien/Aliens universe is a film starring Sean Connery called 'Outland.' Same set designer, so it matches the same industrial vibe. Obviously no Xenomorphs, but it tells a story that looks like it could have happened in that same universe.
And let's not forget this movie was made before any real CGI, mostly using very complex puppeteering and using miniatures, but despite all of that, this movie, brought out in 1986, made in 1985, is now 38 years old, but aged pretty well. Even after all these years, this movie is still so well done.
Stella, in the original film, the byline was "In space, no one can hear you scream". That movie was far more about the ominous atmosphere, and the suspense. That's why you hardly saw the alien in the first movie. They were going for more of an emotional reaction from audience in the first one. Whereas in this movie, it was more about the thrills, and the action; something James Cameron is known more than Ridley Scott who directed the first film.
Although you see a lot of the queen in aliens, you see even less of the warrior aliens in Cameron's film than you do in the first film. You see that there are multiple aliens, but they're always shrouded in shadows and darkness. In the last third of Alien, you see a lot of the creature, especially right at the end when Ripley blasts it with the ship exhaust.
@@Aquascape_Dreamingthat was because they only had five actors in the warrior suits so they had to digitally replicate them. It’s much easier to do have them in shadow.
So the extended version has a scene at the beginning where Ripley is told her RL daughter died of cancer. This was an important detail to give better insight on why Ripley bonded so much with Newt and was incredibly protective of her. It also made sense why she understand Newt's capacity since her RL daughter was Newt's age in the first Alien movie.
Also: the picture they use for Ripley’s daughter(Amanda in-film), who was an older woman by the time Ripley was found, was played by Sigourney Weaver’s real life mother, Elizabeth Ingrid.
Also, in a deleted scene, as Ripley is trying to find Newt in the nest, she finds Burke cocooned and already impregnated with an Alien embryo, Burke begs Ripley to kill him… she looks him dead in the face, then ignores his cries and just leaves him, and goes on to find Newt lol… that’s should have made the extended❤❤❤
also explains why Ripley wiped out the eggs in the nest in front of the queen instead of just booking it back to the ship and watching the nuclear fireball: payback
Extended cut added much more meaning to the relationship of Ripley and Newt in the first few minutes of the film. Mind boggling that the studio cut it out.
It was because of those scenes getting cut is why Weaver almost didn't do Alien 3. She only relented when given executive producer credit as well as implementing her personal views on firearms ie she's anti-gun big time.
The studio didn't cut the scenes, Cameron wasn't the king of the world then and he was obliged to deliver a movie that didn't exceed a certain length. He got his director's cut released a few years later on home video - one of the first directors to make a habit of finishing a longer version for the future, starting with "Aliens." However Cameron saw to it that his extra scenes were finished and/or preserved he deserves a lot of credit for predicting the future. From the point of view of the studio, there was no reason to believe that "Aliens" would work anything like as well as it did. "Alien" was seven years before and Cameron had only done "Terminator" and "Piranha II" by this point.
No, I still prefer the original version. The surprise of shooting at a child was way more horrifying. Even the deceased daughter stuff is not really needed for a woman to protect and bond with a child.
"How did we not think about the ceiling?" It didn't show up in the blue prints. The group were working on flawed intel, not knowing that the rooms were modular with a gap between the room's ceilings and the actual roof of the complex. Unfortunately the people who could have informed them about that were all used as chestburster incubators.
One of my favorite movies of all time. Mom took my sister and I see this at the theater when I was 10 or 11. Was such a long adrenaline ride, my hands started shaking in the car on the way home. The very definition of an "edge of your seat" film. It was awesome.
I'm so stoked that you two are continuing on with the franchise! I absolutely love all these movies. They all have different vibes but are worth watching.
I usually don't watch reaction videos this long, but it's so entertaining watching your genuine reactions and great comments afterwards. Keep up the good work!
I like how these two directors made two different films but were able to keep the lore and canon of the franchise. While two different directors made the previous Star Wars trilogy and completely undermind each other.
So true, the massive worldbuilding of the first movie really benefits this one, while this one also respects and builds upon the worldbuilding and plot of the first one. My biggest problem with the newest Star Wars was in EpVIII it felt like they were actively trying to delete certain threads of plot points and characters, and EpIX seemed like it was just trying to salvage what was left of a coherent story from the end of VIII, like they got written into a corner. These two movies along with the first two Terminator movies is definitely an example of how to do sequels right.
Okay let’s be fair this analogy sucks Making the sequel to a film is not the same as making a literal squeal trilogy to an existing trilogy. and to be even more fair, as much as i dislike the sequel trilogy Freaking Lucas destroyed his own lore and cannon with the prequels and Medioclorians destroying everything about the force turning the Jedi from warrior monks who kept peace to literal video game superheroes who were almost invulnerable (until plot needed them not to be) and could wipe out entire armies single handed.
@@mckenzie.latham91 Personally I've never found Midichlorians to have ruined the lore. It was assumed from the end of Return of the Jedi that force sensitivity was apparently inheritable when Luke says the force is strong in his family, Midichlorians just add a layer of mild science to that idea that a Jedi's force abilities are a mixture of genetic sensitivity and Jedi training honing that natural gift. But yes making them hold their own in combat against hundreds may have been good for spectacle but it did admittedly ruin the mystery a bit. However the new sequels didn't even get basic character consistency right, they immediately made characters irrelevant or killed them off in episode VIII and cut off different themes in favour of focusing on a slow chase, and then episode IX has hundreds of ships helping them even though they had no backup answer them in VIII, the plot was all over the place.
It's so funny how people are talking about the world-building and lore of Ridley Scott's Alien. Guys, it's one of the most perfect films ever made, but it's a b-movie script treated with a-movie sensibilities. It's a b-movie with big money, good actors and a good director riding on the tailcoats of other recent sci-fi movies. It's simple, straightforward and trying to scare you. Not build a world. And if the lore is what gave us Prometheus, i don't need it. 😄
@@G1NZOU "Personally I've never found Midichlorians to have ruined the lore.” Good for you but you are wrong, it as literally been proven to totally retcon everything in Empire The force goes from a living energy field that exist sin all things, that the Jedi were just trained to tap into to literal organisms that have to exist in humanoid bodies, and how many of these organisms exist in you controls how powerful you are in the force Which is essentially Dragon Ball Z Power levels “Even master Yoda doesn’t have a medichlorian count of over 20 thousand” etc. It’s ridiculous, ruins the mysticism and everything meaningful about the force and totally ignores the message. At that point Star war was ruined the only ting that saved the Prequels in terms of relevance to the overall franchise, was the expanded universe and the numerous cartoons and stories centered around it, to actually make it make sense, give it purpose and literally flush out what Lucas couldn’t get right or be betted to care about, in the films. That's the only saving grace. "It was assumed from the end of Return of the Jedi that force sensitivity was apparently inheritable when Luke says the force is strong in his family,” The force exists in everything and everyone, but like any traits, those who are strong in the force pass that on that has nothing to do with medchlorians And in the original trilogy you could be strong in the force and not be a Jedi When Vader is chasing Luke in the death star trench he says, “the force is strong with this one” he had no idea it was a Jedi or Luke/his son, which was the hint that you don't need to be a jedi to be in the force or have the force That was changed after Lucas made the prequels and basically regulated everyone who has force abilities or force sensitive is somehow only that way because they have power levels. Star wars was killed long before Disney had control Cause Lucas forgot his roots, threw away the idea of collective filmmaking and was so obsessed with what shinny sterile toys he could make and do with his green/blue screens and computers, that he forgot the key to actual good film making is real substance, good or at least focussed writing, and knowing when to stop adding on to your already established and perfect work to try and appear edgy and profound. Funnily enough the exact same lessons the people who did the sequel trilogy failed to learn as well.
I still prefer the theatrical version. I especially don't like the scene where Newt and her family go out to the derelict ship. It shows the facehugger too soon and it also makes it less surprising to find Newt later on.
@@nodak81 Same. In my opinion they didn't just cut that scene for time - they cut it so that it was less obvious that Aliens is actually more of a remake than a sequel. When you put that scene back in suddenly the cadence of plot elements looks a lot more like the first film.
@@nodak81 funny. acceptable point but i don't feel it. it's totally clear that they are going find aliens when they arrive later (and the we-lost-contact-scene is right after that scene), so no surprise to be spoiled (to me it rather builds up tension on what /exactly/ they are going to find). and it's also not clear that it is necessarily Newt to be found later on, could have just be a random family. also Newt's scream in that cut scene is one of the best in whole cinema history.
I like portions of both versions. My ultimate version would use scenes from both but especially delete the early family discovery, while leaving in that they went to check it out. So we'd see the colonists and know newts family went out there but we wouldn't see the family attacked.
46:25to expand on the "mother" theme. This was a great scene where the mother of the aliens stares down Ripley who is Newt's surrogate mother. They don't say anything to each other but they both have that "you hurt mine, I hurt yours" vibe
I was living in LA in the late 80s. I met Michael(Hicks)Biehn twice. A super nice guy! The first time was in a Hotel Lobby in San Francisco. Aliens was about to come out and I couldn't wait, because I was a Sci-Fi nerd and loved The Terminator and Alien. I walked up to him, he was surrounded by girls asking for autographs, I shoved my way through them and shook his hand. I said "I think you're a brilliant actor". He said "Thanks". He asked my name. I replied. Then walked away and left him to the girls. A year later I was in a bar in Hollywood and saw Michael standing at the bar and having a beer. So I walked up to him again and said I met him before. He said he remembered but forgot my name. He didn't remember he was just being nice. We then had a long conversation about acting and sports over a couple of beers. Should have been a bigger star. He's great at playing the best good guy like Hicks or Kyle Reese in "The Terminator". He is great a playing the best bad guy like Lt.Coffey in "The Abyss" or Jonny Ringo in "Tombstone". Few actors pull that off.
I often see comments about Bill Paxton being the only actor killed by an Alien, a Predator and a Terminator (btw Lance Henriksen too), but Michael Biehn is the one in love with Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley, the most iconic female action heroes....
Michael Biehn is a fantastic actor , all of his movies are so good . He's a convincing , likeable , realistic guy the movies he plays in . He should have gotten more credit and recognition as the great actor he really is . Sounds like a super nice guy in real life too !
She can drive a loader because she learned working at the warehouse that they mentioned before. She didn't just wake up and go back, she tried to reintergrate into society before being called back, finding a job.
Ripley is one of my all time favorite characters. She's a normal person whos afraid, but does what needs to be done anyways. Thats courage. Thats a hero.
6:44 - Looks like you're watching the theatrical cut. The Director's Cut adds in a lot of footage left out of the original, including a scene here where we get to see the colony thriving before the inevitable happens. We also learn about Ripley's daughter, who lived to old age and died 3 years before Ripley was found. (Incidentally, Ripley's daughter is the protagonist of the 2014 video game Alien: Isolation.) 12:30 - You may have missed this, but actually several weeks/months have passed since she woke up. Like Burke said, she's been working as a cargo loader in the space docks since then. Even if she hadn't been familiar with this equipment before, she's had time to learn. 18:51 - Would YOU be after the s#$% she's seen? 23:03 - This is what Xenomorphs do when they reach sufficient numbers to form a colony. First they secrete the same resinous material that makes up their exoskeletons and use it to turn their current location into a Hive. This resinous shell not only helps turn the climate into one more suited to their metabolism, but it acts as highly effective camouflage because it is the same material as their exoskeletons sculpted into shapes that mimic their own lines. 26:21 - This is what we in the 40K fandom call 'Exterminatus.' 27:16 - So I'm going to mention this here. One of the things you miss out on not seeing the Director's Cut is the development of the relationship between Hicks and Ripley that starts here. You get bits of it, but not enough to see where it's supposed to be going. 32:00 - As I mentioned earlier, the Director's Cut shows the colony receiving that message and going out to investigate. 39:59 - GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER!! 44:13 - This scene is slightly extended in the Director's Cut and serves as the wrap-up for the development of Ripley and Hick's relationship. The highlight of the scene is finally learning Ripley's first name: Ellen. Aliens established the core of the Xenomorph lore. Although the later Promethius movies would attempt to expand the background, most of the lore development from here on took place in comics, video games, and other forms of media. Probably the biggest thing to happen to expand the lore of the xenomorphs actually happened in a different movie franchise from the same era. The original movie series has two more films: Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection. A prequel duology exists: Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. They're...different. You can take them or leave them. What you DO need to watch are the Predator movies: Predator 1 and 2. I know the guys watched 1, you should try to get in on 2 when they watch it. After that there's the Alien Vs. Predator series.
In the early 1990s in my home city Glasgow//Scotland they had an attraction called 'Alien War' located in the massive caverns underneath our main railway station where the colonial marines would escort you around a cool mockup of the aliens-esq set trying to escape the Aliens was a pretty cool experience.
There's a book that explains why she was lost for 57 years. The director's cut is better as it has more background on Ripley and Newt's family. I always thought these marines were specially picked by the "Company" because they were f-ups and not the top of the line..which suited the company's agenda. There is a cut scene that shows Ripley coming across a cocooned Burke.
The late composer James Horner wrote this score in a little over a week since they weren’t done filming/editing. His score garnered an Oscar Nomination.
There is some time that passes between Ripley getting picked up and her being convinced to go back. During which she had her flight rank and license stripped. That's where she learned to pilot the power loader, working in a dockyard.
FYI, the late, great Bill Paxton's in another great horror/suspense thriller with Matthew McConaughey called "Frailty" (2001). It also stars Powers Boothe (of Sin City). You two would truly enjoy that film; great story.
The sub-plot of Ripley and Newt is awesome. Ripley out-lived her daughter and Newt lost her mother, so they fulfilled a missing part of each of their lives. I love that part of the story. Newt calling Ripley "Mommy" at the end was just a great way to end their story in the film. Great film. The extended cut has scenes showing Newt with her family interacting with a face hugger, which I'm glad it's not in the theatrical cut as you learn about Newt a little bit at a time.
I loved the part where the Marine was saying how they were all toast and Ripley says, "This little girl survived here for weeks with no weapons and no training."
But see, I also think that had another meaning, much more sinister: I believed that the only reason Newt was left alone, was because, the Queen and the colony had taken every one else-- they didn’t need her… and when Ripley and the Marines came, it might have been the only thing that kept her from eventually being taken by them… as new eggs were hatched and new Xenomorphs were born.
I would have preferred the extended version, it has some scenes that add a lot more context to it, especially the relation between Ripley and Newt. Ellen Ripley had a daughter when she left earth, roughly the same age as Newt. After she was found after 57 years, she learned that her daughter died before she was found. So saving Newt has a much deeper meaning for Ripley to what is shown in this version. And hits much harder when Newt calls her "Mommy" at the end. Also a lot of scenes how the settlers found that alien ship you know from the first Alien movie. It was Newts dad who was the first victim of a facehugger. Besides that, a few more fight scenes which are quite intense. IMHO worth considering making a second reaction video with the extended.
The special edition is the version Cameron originally wrote and intended for the audience to see, and the favorite for most fans. Some freaks prefer the theatrical for some twisted "reasons."
Throughly enjoyed watching a younger generation of women discovering the Aliens series, specifically Ripley. She was my generations first woman movie hero. Her character really displays how to be courageous and bold, even when facing a monster.
The Alien franchise shifts back and forth between styles for what seems like each movie. David Fischer tries to go back more towards the style of the first movie in Alien3. There’s not much difference between the two, but in the extended “Special Edition” it showed that Ripley had a daughter back on earth when she was working as a freighter on the Nostrumo, and that she had died of cancer in the 57 years she was in stasis. Two years before her return actually. Kinda gives a bit more reason as to why she became so hardcore attached to a random kid.
A fact I will forever love about this movie is how James Cameron pitched it. He met the execs, wrote ALIEN in caps, added an S at the end, then turned the S into a $. The pitch took less than 30 seconds.
Hey, Stella and Haley! This is one of the best sequels ever made! Unfortunately, you didn't see the superior SPECIAL EDITION which has the Amanda Ripley scene, the functioning colony scene, Newt's family's discovery of the derelict ship scene, the automated gun scene, the Hudson speculation about queen ants scene and the name exchange scene. The SPECIAL EDITION is the version both James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver prefer. The future Ripley inhabits is implied to be a dystopic corporatocracy. The most pervasive and powerful corporate entity is the Weyland-Yutani Company, a 22nd-century version of the British East India Company of the 17th- to 19th-centuries. It is a multinational conglomerate involved in robotics, interstellar transport and terraforming with a stake in every colony world. The Company is the TRUE VILLAIN of the Alien universe. Ash and Burke were following a secret corporate mandate to obtain a xenomorph specimen in order to profit from research and weaponization. The colonists who venture beyond the compound like Newt's parents are prospectors who can lay a claim to any discovery they make. The Company would get a large percentage of the find but the colonist would own a piece. A valuable ore would mean a fortune! After Burke heard Ripley's story, he contacted the colony boss to dispatch someone to the coordinates Ripley had indicated in her report with no warning of danger. He must have done a little digging and found out about the Company Directive to investigate any possible sign of intelligent life and to bring back a specimen. He sent Newt's family straight to the derelict ship. Neither Hicks nor Apone were treating Ripley in a sexist manner when she offered to help prep. They regarded her as a civilian. They were both accustomed to females in their unit such as medic Dietrich, pilot Ferro and heavy-gunner Vasquez. When she demonstrates her proficiency with the loader, they were laughing good-naturedly at her bravado and their own underestimation of her abilities. Some trivia: The picture of Ripley's elderly daughter in the Special Edition is actually Sigourney Weaver's real-life mother! The late Al Matthews, who played Sgt. Apone, was a true-blue Marine who was the first black man to be promoted to Sergeant in the Corps during his service in Vietnam! The knife-trick scene was originally supposed to be performed by Lance Henriksen alone but he convinced director James Cameron to surprise Bill Paxton by involving him as they shot the scene! Paxton's wide-eyed terror is completely real! Fan favorite Vasquez is played by non-Hispanic Jenette Goldstein! She goes out like a warrior and enables Gorman to reclaim his honor. Ms. Goldstein now is the proprietress of a Los Angeles-based boutique that specializes in bespoke large-size bras! The motto of her company is, "At Jenette's, the alphabet begins with 'D'."! Bishop's programming to not harm humans or allow them to come to harm through inaction is ripped straight from Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics! Carrie Henn, who played Newt, never acted again but became a schoolteacher. She still maintains a correspondence relationship with Sigourney Weaver thirty-six years later. The late Bill Paxton, who has the distinction of being attacked on screen by an Alien, a Terminator and a Predator, will NEVER be forgotten for his reading of the line, "Why don't you put HER in charge?", referring to little Newt in her oversized helmet. Lol. "ALIEN 3: ASSEMBLY CUT" is a DIVISIVE film but it's an EXCELLENT entry in the series. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU SEE IT!!! Many will try to dissuade you but it is ESSENTIAL VIEWING! It's directed by David Fincher and features Charles Dance and Charles Dutton. It's brutal, fast-paced, has a solid cast, has some extraordinary scares, provides new insight into the creature, presents a fascinating dilemma and concludes the trilogy elegantly. I strongly encourage you NOT TO SKIP IT! Make sure you see the ASSEMBLY CUT (Special Edition with longer runtime). It is available on Redbox and right here on YT. "Alien Resurrection" is the optional one because it's a hot mess except for one cool aquatic sequence. The ambitious prequels, "Prometheus" and "Covenant", mark director Ridley Scott's return to the series but they are mostly good JUST for Michael Fassbender's performances. Scott demystifies the creature and unsatisfyingly attempts to address who the elephant-headed pilot of the derelict spacecraft was. If you intend to see the "ALIEN vs. PREDATOR" films, then you need to acquaint yourself with the PREDATOR franchise. The first is an action classic with Schwarzenegger. Danny Glover's underrated urban-set "PREDATOR 2" features some memorable set pieces. Dark Horse comics explored the crossover concept inspiring Hollywood to make two crossover films with moderately successful to excellent results. They're fun and exciting guilty pleasures with the second one, "ALIENS vs. PREDATOR: REQUIEM", being particularly lean and mean. There is also a "PREDATORS" film produced by Robert Rodriguez that is definitely worth a look. "THE PREDATOR" (2018) REBOOT, however, nearly killed the franchise and should be approached with a great deal of trepidation! "PREY" is an 18th-century-set prequel to the original film that was released on Hulu last summer! The Alien films have a RICHER SUBTEXT while the Predator films are more ACTION FARE but they're both fun sci-fi thrillers. VIEWING ORDER: Alien Aliens (Special Edition) Alien 3 (Assembly Cut) Alien Resurrection (Director's Cut) [OPTIONAL] Predator (1987) Predator 2 Predators Prey Alien vs. Predator Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (Unrated) Prometheus [OPTIONAL] Covenant [OPTIONAL] The Predator (2018) [EXTREMELY OPTIONAL] INTERNAL CHRONOLOGY: 1719 Prey 1987 Predator 1997 Predator 2 2004 Alien vs. Predator 2004 Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (Unrated) 2010 Predators 2018 The Predator [EXTREMELY OPTIONAL] 2093 Prometheus [OPTIONAL] 2104 Covenant [OPTIONAL] 2122 Alien 2179 Aliens (Special Edition) 2179 Alien 3 (Assembly Cut) 2379 Alien Resurrection (Director's Cut) [OPTIONAL]
Wait, Jennifer Lawrence said she was the first female action hero in any movie. How, then, can Ripley be such a kick ass, well written, character driven hero (not to mention, amazingly, plays a maternal influence as well) exist before Jennifer Lawrence? Anyway, yes this movie, Godfather II, Terminator 2, Empire Strikes Back.....doesn't get better.
Makes no sense. Al Pacino was the lead in Godfather 2. There was no female lead. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the lead in Terminator 2. I guess you could argue Linda Hamilton was. And Mark Hamil and Harrison Ford were the leads in The Empire Strikes Back. Carrie Fisher didn’t even want to come back for the sequels….
@@hannahstevenson27 Well, to clarify, because it seems you need some here evidently. There are two issues being pointed out here: 1. Lawrence's ridiculous and ignorant interview where she stated she, unbelievably, stated she was the first female action hero in a movie. I was pointing out how Weaver played an ICONIC FEMALE action hero 30 YEARS prior. Number 2: just listing a number of usual suspects in cases where the sequel is, arguably, better than the original. In addition, to add fuel to your fire, Hamilton is ABSOLUTELY written and has a logical, well developed, character arc which makes her another classic movie hero. My point was Hollywood can't do this kind of thing today, regardless how much Jennifer Lawrence refuses to acknowledge it was actually done SUCCESSFULLY before she was even born
@@louisenglish8069 I read somewhere that Jennifer Lawrence was actually referring to the YA genre, which Hunger Games is, and not movies in general. So yes, she probably IS the first real kick-ass female lead in a YA-based movie.
Not to be forgotten among those great sequels - 'Star Trek 2 : The Wrath of Khan'. What a freaking masterpiece of a movie. I've seen it at least 100 times and that final act still guts me every time (you know which scene).
You both wondered how Ripley knew how to use the Power Loader. The company man mentions when he comes to her for help that she's been working down at the docks. That where she got her license. I think the debate between the 2 films has always been a little muted as they are different genres; psych-horror and action-horror. Each one is a superb example of their respective genres.
Meh, I don't even think of Aliens as horror at all. You can't really call it horror when the beast so mysterious and deadly from the first film is killed multiple times within the movie - that's why they had to up the ante with the Alien queen, and even then it didn't really work for me. Aliens reduces the mystery beast into a merely dangerous animal requiring just enough firepower to take down - in this way I would credit Cameron as the beginning of the demystifying of the xenomorph, and not in any kind of positive way.
@@mnomadvfx Mysterious and inexplicable things do inspire horror, but so do implacable, inhuman and powerful things. The girls even say it in their reaction, something to the effect that the group left after the disastrous hive attack are clever, careful and competent...and still outmatched. That is it's own brand of horror.
You really need to see the cut portions of the movie. Ripley finding out about her daughter, the scenes on Hadley's Hope and the iconic and most well known deleted scene, The Sentry Guns. Also on the gear the marines have, it's common practice for marines of the USCM to customise their gear. It's great to see people discover this movie and enjoy it but take it from me, watch the directors cut, it is so much better and adds a ton of context with the new scenes added.
There was a difference in vision between the first Alien directed by Ridley Scott and Aliens directed by James Cameron. This was the first time an actress was nominated for Best Actress for playing a character in a movie sequel as well....
"8 meters.... 7....... 6" "That can't be, that's inside the room...." Goddam that bit gives me goosebumps. It may have been a high-energy 80s action sci-fi, but that bit manages to capture the feel of the original Alien.
I believe Ripley had a Class 2 Loader Rating NOW rather than 57 years ago. There would be no need for a Warrent Officer in her Nostromo position to have one OR she would have similar knowledge/rating of other equipment to update her rating 57 years after. ❤your Horror Reactions!!!!
Good reaction as always girls. You should see the director's cut it explians why Ripley got so attached to Newt so quickly and a few other things as well. The actor of Kyle Reese from the first Terminator movie is here as the one that survives with Ripley and Newt,which is cool and Lopaz is the actress of John's adopted mother in Terminator 2. The parts where Lopaz is shooting the aliens is not the actress but in fact it was James's wife at the time as a stand in for her. These two are the best and honostly I think you could just end things here and not watch the ones that came next. The actors got to design their own armor so each of them have something personal on it which is an interesting idea. If you have both not seen Terminator 1 and 2 then I highly suggest you do so because they are both amazing movies. I loved this one so much though it takes more of an action side than horror but still interesting and by the way the part where they have Bishop play the knife game with Bill Paxton's character the fear on his face was real because he had no idea they would use his own hand for it also if you pay close attention you will see that the footage was sped up so that it looks like bishop is doing so with unhuman speed which is an interesting way to do things.
"You should see the director's cut it explians why Ripley got so attached to Newt so quickly and a few other things as well" Yesn't. The Ripley of the first movie went back for a cat. A frickin cat - and she tried to go back for her last 2 crew knowing that they were under attack, only to find them dead. She was already demonstrated to be a good person by these actions in Alien. If anything setting a requirement on her goodness from Newt being an emotional replacement for her daughter makes Ripley LESS of a good person. Also the latino Marine woman with the gimballed smart gun is called Vasquez, not Lopaz. I would agree about not watching Alien Resurreciton, but Alien 3 is fine as long as it is the Assembly Cut - unlike Aliens it actually has an original plot 😅
@@mnomadvfx You were probably not paying attention, but in the first movie there was only one alien, and Ripley had a working flamethrower. On this one, there are hundreds of aliens and Ripley has limited ammo. Also, on the first one Ripley was just reacting, not having time to process everything. On this one, she's clearly traumatized. She had the time to relive her nightmares again and again. So going into the aliens' nest to rescue Newt is a big deal. It's not just because she's a "good person."
This was Carrie Henns (Newt) only major acting role. After this movie her parents moved back to the United States from London and she basically gave up acting. After high school she pursued a career in education and is currently teaching grade four in the California school system. Her and Sigourney Weaver remained friends and maintain contact with each other to this day. 😊
One of the interesting design modifications that Cameron did on the original Alien design was to remove the smooth covering from the top of the head. In the original film that smooth top of the aliens head was actually translucent, and underneath it was all of this rigid bone structure. Cameron saw this detail (that you don't really see in the original film) and removed the translucent cover to leave it exposed. And it gives this new species of alien a much more insect like appearance.
Fun reaction! The facial expressions were gold lol. The director's cut is almost a different movie. So much more was put in. To me it actually moves faster than the theatrical. And the aliens are in it more.
Both are phenomenal, the first being the haunted house movie, the second an outright war movie, and both completely deserving of their iconic status. I remember seeing the trailer for Aliens in the theatre which took 10 years to appear, you could sense the entire audience were agasp with the tagline… “this time, it’s war’ !
Agreed. You can tell she is terrified but still extremely capable. I think some hollywood movies now think the protagonist has to be a machine that shows no fear. Also Ripley's attire is appropriate and functional, she's in tennis shoes, pants, and not wearing much if any make up which is realistic. She isn't running around in a skimpy outfit wearing stilettos cuz it's just not practical.
To be fair the reason that Hollywood thinks that is because that was their winning formula for male heroines and action stars for decades half of 80s flicks and action films had stalwart invulnerable heroine figures who kicked ass, took no prisoners and never showed weakness or fear. That’s why die hard was so game changing with Jon mClane and Bruce willis playing him, as a regular looking guy who got afraid and was vulnerable
Ripley was smart and ready to do what needed to be done. That made her badass without being a badass. It was the same for Princess Leia. New movies make the female a badass and we're supposed to think that everything she does is awesome. It doesn't work that way.
The great thing about the Alien franchise is how different all of the films are. Overall, this is probably the best film in the series, production-wise at least but I'm sure you'll find plenty to appreciate in Alien 3 as well. Hope to see the reaction soon! Best wishes!
The fun fact the scene in Cantine after the Marines and Ripley wake up was the last scene they made, the actors had known each other for months now so that's why is so like family banters, jokes, and laughs.
Yes, a little reverse psychology. Set them up as assholes, then humanise them, then you don't know where your emotions are, and that's exactly how they pull you in further. They set you up to make assumptions and then destroy them in front of your face.
The extended cut is a fun one time watch, to see what was cut. But the theatrical cut of Aliens is one of the most perfectly paced action films of all time, which is why it’s my preferred way to watch it.
One of you asked earlier in the video how Ripley knew how to operate power loader (mechanized exoskeleton). I believe she gained the experience from working at the cargo docks. When Burke and Gorman visited Rilpey's apartment Burke commented that it was the only work Ripley was able to find after she returned home.
Great movie that just doesn’t really age much at all. I think it’s good to remember the context. A lot of the themes and storylines that seem run of the mill to us now weren’t cliched back then. There have been so many movies that have come out in the 37 years since this was released, that have been inspired by and borrow from Alien and Aliens. These two movies along with Terminator revamped the sci-fi/horror genre, so you can’t really call think of them as “run of the mill”. They pretty much are the mill that established the standard. As a kid Ellen Ripley and Indiana Jones were my favorite action heroes by far. I haven’t seen any characters that approach them in their appeal since.
In the special edition she asked for he daughter, but they tell her that she died because was old like 70 years some like that , and she cried, that s why she feels some feelings for the child
Ripley was one of the first and biggest (in many ways) Strong Female Leads to carry a movie. She proved it could be done; she's a total badass in this, even more than she was in the first one, and she has some of the most EPIC lines for the Action Movie archives.
We all thought it was over too LOL. That part at the end is imprinted in everyone's memory who made it to the end of this great 80s movie. This movie on the big screen, back in the day was absolutely terrifying TERIFYING! The sound, the characters, the storyline, the believability. We enjoyed the film and at the end of the movie, the entire theater audience was sweating from the experience lol. It was so visceral. The theater setting turned up the terror. Gosh we were kids, I was 6 the year this came out and my dad took our family to see this (mom and my two sisters 8 and 5 I think). We were scared for weeks lol. This one really stands out. I wish they would put this back in theaters for people to experience this on the big screen. One of the best movies ever made for movie theater experience and a big classic that never gets old. These are the great things in the 80s (along with so much more in entertainment) that made our era so magical. Ya'll are able to watch some of the best, the art of movies at one of the finest! 80s movies are special!
I saw this in the theater when it came out. One of the best theater experences of my life with everybody cheering and screaming as it goes between horror and kick ass action. This sadly is where the Alien movies end as far as being worth watching. Everything past this point is pretty bad.
@@group-music Stick with the voices in your head. 🤣 There are thousands of ratings and reviews to pick from, and not one of them will claim that turd "3" is better than Aliens
Funny story about Paul Reiser, who played Burke...his mother was at the premiere of Aliens, and he did such a good job playing Burke that even his own mother cheered when he died.
Alien 3 is well worth checking out. Especially if you can find the assembly cut. Its a totally different vibe again. Almost has a stage play feel. And a cinematic directorial debut for the fantastic david fincher.
17:59 In the extended version, the girl's family, alongside her brother, ends up finding the torus-looking ship from the first film, and her father gets caught by a facehugger. The rest is history.
