Rage against the Beasts Part 2 or 2 Tech Warrior Ripley

Movie review: Aliens

Two Jane Fondas in one

The 2 covers of books on Alien movies’ production by the late J W Rinzler seem very similar to each other as far as your truly is considered. Both feature Ripley fully suited up in process of killing dickhead monsters. The difference being the vacuum suit in Alien is for defense while the power loader in Aliens is for offense. Sigourney Weaver certainly played the role with slightly more confidence here.

“Pretty woman holding a big gun” was a key factor in Ms. Weaver’s casting as Ripley from the very beginning. Ridley Scott wanted her for the role and had to shoot some screen test footage of her to persuade Alan Ladd, who was in charge at Fox. Those screen test included how well she looks holding a flame thrower. Ladd was not too sure, so he showed footage to women working at his office. The reception was positive as they compared young Sigourney to Jane Fonda.

The comparison those women made is interesting to say the very least. I have seen this particular Ms. Fonda in 2 flicks before 1979: 1968’s Barbarella and 1971’s Klute. The former is a sex comedy starring Fonda as its titular space hero, the latter won her an Oscar. Ripley in Aliens can be seen as combination of those 2, she fits the “space hero” archetype and the role got Weaver a nomination of Academy Award.

By the time James Cameron made this bigger sequel, Ripley’s big gun got bigger. Well, not so much as the “Ripley is back with an ‘army’” outline since that “army” or those marines were taken off the board soon enough. Just a futuristic assault rifle taped to a flame thrower when she is ready to pile up bodies in the third act. Her final battle of the film involved exoskeleton. 1992’s third Alien depowering her just did not make any sense. And I wonder if I would dive into those action orientated magical girl anime if I didn’t enjoy Aliens. Of course, female leads as those have, they are all created by men. And reaction to this man from Canada can be baffling.

Lining up for Cameron flick in “pre-historical” times

James Cameron is a man known for breaking box office records before those damned brands took over in the last decade. Even here in miHoYo’s country of origin, I recall seeing people lining up for flicks he helmed in 2 separate occasions.

The first time was in spring, 1998 when Titanic was the hot shit. I typed “miHoYo’s country of origin” instead of “the city hosing miHoYo global headquarters” is because I saw lines in 2 cities. On a weekend trip my parents took me to Wuxi, a nearby city of Shanghai, there was a long line of people in front of a cinema for the sinking ship movie.

The second time was in early, 2010. The time can be seen as “pre-historical” in 2 aspects: one being that Shanghai was one year away from hosting miHoYo global headquarters; the other being that the city had only one IMAX screen (More would be up by the time of Inception’s release later that year.). So, the long lines formed before it for screenings of Avatar. Of course, Avatar: Way of Water was released at tail end of Covid lockdown here, plus the trend of online ticket sales over the last decade, so no one lined up for that.

Aliens was very much the flick that pinned James Cameron on the map. Myth has it that it was the very first R-rated flick ever got 100 million us dollars in box office. But like what was said about the city of Rome, its success was about riding the tide rather than making its own trend.

Art of action

As Cinemassacre’s James Rolfe once pointed out, the plot of Aliens is very similar to the giant ants classic, Them! From sole survivor being a little girl to the roast of a bug nest. However, what the 1986 flick does stand out with its enteritic set pieces and the monsters having more on-camera movement than the 1979 original. This is a archetypical 1980s Hollywood action flick.

It would be fair to say that “archetypical 1980s Hollywood action flicks” did not appear until the year 1985, with Rambo: First Blood Part 2 in May and Commando in October. Those are famous or infamous for their high body counts. Though the bodies do not really pile up until the third acts. Rambo was co-written by Cameron, but the similarity between Commando and Aliens are more striking.

For starters, Ripley and Colonel John Matrix, as action lead, are both loving parenting figures. Their little girls were taken and they are willing to kill to get her back. Now, there is a rabbit hole regarding Reagan era welfare cut to go down, but yours truly would step down simply because I ain’t no yank. Both characters would strip down for good reasons (Ripley took off her jacket so she can wear that belt with grenades, while Matrix needs to get out of some dirty clothes he went through swamp in.) before suit up for the final battle(s).

The final battle, though, is bit more like Rambo in terms of the hardware involved. Commando ends with two well, commandoes having a knife fight, while Rambo has a chase between 2 armed to their teeth helicopters. Aliens’ antagonist, the Xenomorph Queen is one big mother. So big that Ripley cannot get into a fist fight with her without hardware assistance. In this case, a man-shaped forklift called Power Loader. It’s already funny that cast members playing marines in this film read more of Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein than Paul Verhoeven, who would direct the 1997 movie with the same name. Then Aliens did power armor all right 11 years before power armor was cut out of the ST movie.

Speak of did it before, it’s funny to hear Robert Rodriguez boasting about he threw action figure around as pre-visualization (“Pre-viz” for short.) for that Mandalorian episode he directed. More than a quarter century before that, Aliens got pre-viz done with Cameron just taping around uncolored models. While the stunt where marines getting blown up can only be filmed with stunt performers, stunts involving heavy machinery in Aliens were almost all filmed with miniature models. Producer Ms. Hurd would proudly claim that Fox executive thought those are shot with real set.

Number game

Ironically, this unnumbered sequel actually brought several numbers into the so-called Alien franchise for Fox. No, the 57 years after Alien is not among those yours truly consider important. I mean O’Bannon once envisioned the sequel tease for something set 250 years after the first one, so no big deal. The first one would be labelling the planetoid with Xenomorph egges “LV-426”, since the franchise’ new owner Disney celebrated April, the Twenty-sixth as “Alien Day”. Storyteller wannabe sure love using “lore” for branding. Then there is this bit of retcon.

Oh, how I want to nail YOKO TARO to a wall like Emil’s sister in the first NieR for this. Cameron gave Ash from the first one a couple of numbers. And how far into the future are those films can only be deduced from throwaway line: 2179, putting the first on in 2122. “Alien over Aliens” people can claimed their preferred 1979 flick as the one contributing all they like, it’s the 1986 sequel those corporate type refer to when it comes to continuity.

Tastes like chicken

The 137 minutes long theatrical cut and the 154 minutes long “Special Edition” are both fine if you ask me. My first view of the flick was with the latter while the former brought in millions for Fox and got Ms. Weaver an Oscar nomination. Though the way theatrical cut left something off-screen while only referred those in dialogue is smarter.

As someone who started gaming with PC in the last couple of years in the twentieth century, yours truly very much stepped into a nest Aliens made. From console ports like Resident Evil/Biohazard series to built-for-the-platform Star Craft and Half-life, the 1986 flick had sunk its long teeth into the interactive media and left a bite too deep to heal from. I am rather surprised that my view of it did not diminish my enjoyment of Mass Effect. Oh, well, this science fiction series set in space does need beef up its interstellar geo-political landscape game. But then again, if Star Wars lost that edge under Disney, then a series just about dickhead monsters would not stand a chance. Oh, well, at least its first 2 installments are good, heh?

(the End)