Watching Aliens (1986)

I fall into the escapism of Aliens at a special screening at BFI London on 27 December. I was too young to watch it in the cinema when it was released in 1986. Watching it in my lounge as a teenager was intimate and formed a connection to my brother, school and family home.

I joined fans of the action film to watch it on the silver screen. Being in a dark theatre with people who want to watch it means I can avoid “Host Watch” which has haunted me throughout my life. It is when you show someone a film you love and spend the whole time watching them instead of the film to check if they like it.

I was ready to get it on with Ripley and her ultimate badasses! The curtains open, fade in, deep space, silent and endless where no one can hear you scream. A salvage crew rescue Ripley and her ginger cat Jonesy.

Fifty-seven years after blowing an alien out of the goddamn airlock of the Nostromo, Ripley discovers that smoking is still allowed in boardroom meetings. Suit collars have changed but corporate arseholes like Carter Burke still exist. Ripley falls for his lies and agrees to go back to LV-426 after contact is lost with the colony. Burke doesn’t want to destroy the aliens; he wants to bring them back to Earth to study and get rich. Big mistake.

I felt a lump in my throat and pressure in my eyes a few times as I watched the film. I always wanted to be a space marine when growing up. Ripley, Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez, Frost, Apone, Dietrich, Ferro, all the marines and even Bishop are my parasocial platoon. I know they are doomed but I am with them every step of the way.

What I love about the ensemble cast is the mix between actors who forged successful acting careers and those whose careers moved in other directions. But that doesn’t matter from my perspective – they all made it a great film. Alien introduced Sigourney Weaver and Aliens turned her into a bona fide film star. She delivers a perfect performance as do her alien counterparts. Thank you to the artists and production crew for designing such brilliant monsters.

The cinema audience loved Hudson’s wisecracks. “We're on an express elevator to hell, going down” and "Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen!". Pulse rifles, smart guns, motion detectors, sentry guns, pistols, grenades, “eat this” with a shotgun and “get away from her you bitch”. You start to believe you are shoulder to shoulder with them in this hell.

Script Extract

• Private Hudson: [reading a motion detector] I got signals. I got readings, in front and behind.

• Private Frost: Where, man? I don't see shit.

• Corporal Hicks: He's right. There's nothin' back here.

• Private Hudson: Look, I'm telling ya, there's somethin' movin' and it ain't us! Tracker's off scale, man. They're all around us, man. Jesus!

• Corporal Dietrich: Maybe they don't show up on infrared at all...

• [an alien pounces on her and drags her up to the ceiling]

“I like to keep this handy for close encounters” and “let’s rock” are the classic quotes that accompany the best cinematic firefight of the 80s.

Ripley saves the day in the armoured personnel carrier. The film structure never wobbles. The tension never affects the characterisation. Even when Hudson loses his cool after the marines get their arses kicked, Ripley, Hicks and Vasquez are there to sort him out. Everyone gets the opportunity for redemption. Hudson saves Newt from a facehugger. When the aliens penetrate the perimeter and they count down the metres: “six metres. Five. What the fu-“. Ripley looks up to the ceiling. Hicks pops open a ceiling panel to see a swarm of aliens coming.

Hudson’s final stand ends with him being dragged away for cocooning. I wonder if the alien that burst out of Hudson’s chest was a wisecracking dude. It could have helped change the culture of the alien species and led to better films in the franchise. Even that asshole Lieutenant Gorman runs back through the tunnel to save Vasquez only to realise there is no escape. They die with honour and blow up their enemy in the blast.

Hicks shows he is more than a grunt. Bishop proves he can be trusted as he saves Ripley and Newt from the exploding station, then saves Newt from being blown into space with the Alien Queen. Arguably Ripley is the best female character in an action film ever, but if films try to copy her arc it is never as good.

Ridley Scott said about Aliens: “You know Sigourney is going to win. So right there you’ve saddled yourself with a problem.” Yes, you know she is going to win and maybe she kills the aliens protecting the Queen a little easily, but you still believe in the peril she is in.

Thank you to everyone involved in making Aliens.