'These people are DEAD Burke! Don't you have any idea what you have done here?!! Well, I'm gonna make sure they nail you right to the wall for this! You're not gonna sleaze your way out of this one! Right to the wall!'
The production of Aliens sounds like a horror story all by itself. A battle between people from either side of the Atlantic over things like work schedules and tea breaks. It's an unprofessional nightmare which should never been allowed to happen but the culture clash was real, and this lack of respect for film makers trying to make a sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 classic created a lot of problems. It's said they even refused to watch a private screening of The Terminator to see they weren't being pushed around by a complete fraud. The original DOP was fired because he refused to the right way. James Remar, cast as Hicks, was let go because of drug problems. There was even friction between the two Jims Cameron and Horner when music wasn't written on schedule. So it has to be asked; when the results are this good can this be considered a true story of art through adversity?
Perhaps that's just me being a little glib about the problems involved, but luckily all the stress paid off and the results are very much comparable to the original. Much like the first two Terminator films, I have often had trouble deciding which is the better movie (though in that case my current answer at the time of writing is part one). But they're all fantastic in quite different ways, so let's explore why this particular sequel works so well. Perhaps a lot of what the film does right stems from the overall creative process. After all, they set out some six or seven years late to do a horror sequel and chose not to rehash the original. In the world of genre movies when does that ever happen? I would expect something to be rushed out within a year to strike while the iron is hot.
Of course they still retread a lot of old ground and there are many scene for scene moments. But luckily for us the approach is very different. The third instalment has many detractors (myself included to some extend) but much of what it gets wrong is a result of the way they casually hit reset on the score board just so that Ripley could be reduced to a lone survivor again. It's just another hunter versus hunted style film instead of something innovative. James Cameron on the other hand took the opportunity to do something a little more interesting. His more dynamic approach not only allows for some great tonal shifts, but also actual character growth. The result is undoubtedly one of the best sequels of all time.
There was still a chance for it to be creepy and tense when necessary, but it could also be all about kicking ass. It's journey towards catharsis for the hero and the audience. Recycled elements like the airlock showdown do show up, but they're suitably bigger and louder to fuel this energising atmosphere. Other scenes are reused simply subvert audience expectations -- for example the opening nightmare which cleverly gets the alien birth scene over and done with so people are not waiting for it to arrive. The rest of the story changes things around completely by avoiding the old horror staple of one creature versus a vulnerable supporting cast. This kind of thinking allowed them create new iconic moments instead of just repeating the old ones.
It's easy to forget that Alien itself could have been just another cheap monster movie called Starbeast, and this could have easily been a brainless rip off called Alien 2. In both cases the results of creative minds putting real effort into the film making process are very impressive. This approach accounts for the unusual choice of setting the film 57 years later. It's a strange idea at first but it quickly establishes the mood. Ripley is not just alone because of surviving the Nostromo disaster but is also isolated in her life as a whole. It also allows for nearly six decades of development in terms of science fiction technology. It's something I feel that gets forgotten when viewers complain that the creatures get are easily blasted by machine guns and smashed by moving vehicles.
This is a new era and times have changed since Ash described the perfect organism. It also allows for new ideas in terms of the world building. Extravagant designs like drop ships and power loaders can be given a pass because they don't have to feel like they are still part of the world of space truckers. Subsequent stories in this franchise usually ignore all this and have every day Twenty First Century people surviving against the unstoppable horrors from LV-426 by using contemporary weapons to pierce their armoured skin. Other prequels mess this up further by having stories set closer to the original time period that include far too many gadgets and computer screens. Here the hardware is used in a truly creative way so that the film can look distinct from the original, but also to allow the shift towards action cinema.
On the subject of changes the character writing also has to be addressed to explore why Ripley herself is still one of the best protagonists in science fiction. The events of the story allow her to go from the flight officer who clashed with her crew mates in the original, to someone who is disregarded by corporate board room suits. There's a palpable build up of tension as this lack of respect continues into the sequel. So of course it makes perfect sense that she's the one has to stand up and pull everyone together by taking a stand against idiocy when things go awry. It also allows for some interesting maternal layers (beyond her interaction with lone survivor Newt) as she takes charge and galvanises the juvenile jar-heads. She was the only adult in the room this whole time.
The way this family feud ends up as a battle between two mothers in the finale might be a little on the nose, but it's still totally compelling. The inclusion of one real child in peril subplot can be a little distracting, since of course this should really be a story where everyone is at equal risk of a sudden and violent death. Newt was about as likely to get diced as much as Jones the cat the first time around. But it's a small complaint and the overall subtext is probably more interesting because of these extra parental bonds. It helps that this isn't always the main focus, and that the supporting cast are all so effective. The more obnoxious marines can be irritating at times, but I've never had a huge problem with this ensemble as a whole. They might have virtually no depth but they're fun.
Hudson is all mouth and no trousers, Vasquez and Drake are macho and trigger happy, and Gorman is a spineless hands-off leader. The inclusion of Bishop the android is also fun; again using the first movie to mess with audience expectations. Even Burke the slimy corporate stooge is played just right before and after he gets all the best parts of Ripley's slowly boiling rage. Michael Beihn may have been brought in at the last minute to play laid back but reliable Hicks, but he offers a cool persona far removed from his burnt out Kyle Reese. The dialogue isn't exactly ground breaking and to be honest they're basically all caricatures. But the performances all feel just right and they're memorable even with brief amounts of screen time being shared. It's an ensemble of a fairly large size so in some ways that's what really matters.
All this great character stuff is wrapped up in a finely paced thrill ride structure, with some of the best set pieces and creature creations in film history. It also has one hell of a score thanks to James Horner. He may have borrowed a lot of motifs from his work on The Wrath of Khan (or even one odd cue that seems to be mirroring 2001: A Space Odyssey) but it's a great mix of brassy, bold action themes and chilling atmosphere building moments. Elsewhere artists like creature effects master Stan Winston and his team might have had some serious challenges building extrapolations of H.R. Giger's original work, but they certainly deliver some amazing results. Moments like the clash between Ripley in the loader and the alien queen are a high point for both practical effects and puppeteering wizardry.
They also make make a small number of costumes feel like a limitless number of monsters thanks to clever editing and slight of hand techniques. Less is often more, but the results here show you can have it both ways when the skill levels are high enough. It's bigger but it's still claustrophobic, and it's a tense race against time even when the guns are blazing. They even manage to take the already horrifying face hugger and augment it further. It might have been nightmare fuel before but the nitro is on full during the medical bay set piece. The results are a true master class in nail biting cinema as well as an impressive use of models in many different scales. Who would have thought a few rubber creatures, some fishing wire, and lot of red flashing lights would be so effective.
The impact this film has had on popular culture is still being felt in countless films and video-games. They're all in love with big guns and scenery chewing. But the craft on show here is often overlooked when people remember the story for its explosive action sequences alone. These moments are still impressive of course but there is far more to the film than pyrotechnics. It should get more credit for the suspense scenes, particularly the exploration of the abandoned colony and Ripley's later venture into the Atmosphere Processor. These are perfect examples of building both the tension and the world of the movie. The director's cut extends the running time slightly and loses a little of this slowly building momentum, but whether one version is really better is arguable. Sometimes too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
James Cameron would go on to work on other greats such as The Abyss and Terminator 2 which retain many of the elements presented here, including no nonsense lead characters and the dangers of human endeavours in technological advancement. But as the years pass I often feel sad that this mix of interesting themes, intelligent ideas and ground breaking special effects has never been revisited. Next to some of these all time greats the likes of True Lies, Titanic and Avatar are deeply flawed. They're mediocre at best and they don't seem to include the same kind of creativity and passion beyond a growing interest in new cameras and CGI. These days it seems as though James Cameron himself is living in a techno-thriller nightmare. Will Avatar 2, 3 and 4 ever bring us back to the highs of this visceral thrill ride through Hadley's Hope? I think at this stage it's unlikely, but I can dream.
5/5
