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James Remar (shown above) was originally cast as Hicks. Michael Biehn replaced him a few days into principal photography because of "artistic differences" between Remar and writer/director James Cameron. However, Remar actually still makes an appearance in the final film. When the marines first find the hive and enter it, he can be seen from behind although his face isn't revealed. This was a complicated effects shot so a reshoot would've been too expensive and unnecessary.
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Lance Henriksen wanted to wear double-pupil contact lenses for a scene where Bishop is working in the lab on a microscope and gives a scary look at one of the marines. He came to set with those lenses, but James Cameron decided he didn't need to wear them because he was acting the character with just the right amount of creepiness already.
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The difficulties surrounding Sigourney Weaver's contract negotiations were such that James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, recently married, announced that if the deal wasn't done by the time they got back from their honeymoon, they were out. When they returned, no progress had been made so Cameron, determined to make the film and wary of the deadline scenario he had created, devised a scheme: he telephoned Arnold Schwarzenegger's agent for an informal chat and told him that, thanks to his newfound standing in Hollywood following The Terminator, he had decided to make this film entirely his own by writing Ripley out. As Cameron anticipated, Arnold's agent immediately relayed the information to his colleague representing Weaver at ICM who in turn contacted Fox's Head of Production Lawrence Gordon; both men, determined that under no circumstances whatsoever would Ripley be written out, wasted no time in sealing Weaver's deal.
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Armorer Terry English made three sets of armour for each member of the cast who needed it. He was only given two weeks to complete the job and upon arriving back at his workshop a few hours drive away from the film set, he realized he had forgotten the scrap of cloth James Cameron had given him so that the camouflage on the armour could be matched correctly to the marines' uniforms. Instead of going all the way back, Terry painted the completed sets of armour from memory, using Humbrol paints. The result was a pattern and color combination not too dissimilar to the British Army DPM pattern. Fortunately, Cameron liked the contrast between the armour and the BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms) the marines wore beneath it, saying it made the armour more obvious to the eye. The graffiti you see on some of the armour was done by the actors themselves with a little help from English for a few details like Hicks' clasp and padlock on his chest armour. The armour was made from aluminum all in one size with on-set adjustments made by English to make them fit each performer.
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According to the 1991 Collector's Edition Laserdisc release of the movie (presented on the Bonus Disc of the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVD set), James Cameron turned in the first treatment for the film under the title, "Alien II," on September 21, 1983. Some of the differences between this initial treatment and the final film include the following:
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The character of Carter Burke was absent. Instead his dialogue was given to someone named Dr. O'Niel who didn't go on the mission to the colony planet.
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Instead of being taken to Gateway Station, Ripley was taken to Earth Station Beta.
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The planet's name was Acheron, taken from the script of Alien, instead of LV-426.
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Ripley's daughter was alive, and Ripley had a disheartening videophone conversation with her where she blamed Ripley for abandoning her by going into space.
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There were multiple atmospheric processors on the planet.
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The initial discovery of the Aliens on the planet is much longer where it is shown how Newt's father reaches the site of the Eggs and is jumped by a Facehugger.
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An additional scene involves a rescue team going to the site of the Alien Eggs and being jumped by tens of Facehuggers.
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The Aliens sting people to paralyze them before either killing or cocooning them.
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At one point, Ripley, Newt, and Hicks get cocooned.
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The Aliens cocooning people are a different breed. They look like smaller, albino versions of the Warrior Aliens.
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Bishop refuses to land on the planet to pick up Ripley, Hicks, and Newt, indicating "the risk of contaminating other inhabited worlds is too great."
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Ripley ends up using the colonists' shuttle to get back to the Sulaco.
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Bishop tells her: "You were right about me all along."
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The first draft of the script was turned in by Cameron on May 30, 1985. This draft was quite different from the treatment but very close to the final film.
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A scene on the colony before the Alien outbreak was deleted from the theatrical cut. Elements of it show up in later James Cameron projects. The line, "... and we always get the same answer: don't ask," was used in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In fact the entire scene in T2 follows the same pacing and tone as the scene cut from the theatrical version of Aliens: - an employee flags down a supervisor and they walk together, talking about the behavior of their employer - Weyland-Yutani in Aliens, CyberDyne Systems in Terminator 2 - and ending in the line "...don't ask." The character name "Lydecker" was used in the Dark Angel TV show.
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During the sequence in which Newt and Ripley are locked in Med Lab, Ripley is attacked by one of the two Facehuggers after setting off the sprinklers, resulting in the creature wrapping its tail around her throat after jumping off a table leg. To film this, director James Cameron had the effects crew design a Facehugger fully capable of walking towards Ripley on its own, but to make it appear as if it jumps, Cameron filmed the shot in reverse. He set the Facehugger on the table leg then dragged it off and later edited the footage to play backward to make it appear to be move forward towards Ripley. A crew member thought the fact that water was falling down during the scene would ruin the reversed shot (it would show the water moving up instead of down), but Cameron knew this wouldn't be visible, and in the end, he was right.
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When Ripley confronts Burke about having the Jordens sent out to check the grid reference, she tells him she checked the company log reference 6.12.79. The theatrical release for Alien (1979) was 6th December, 1979 (6.12.79 in the English date format). It is believed that this sequel is set in the year 2179 with Alien set 57 years earlier in 2122.
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During Hudson's (Bill Paxton) boasting monologue aboard the Dropship (Special Edition only) he talks about some of the weaponry of the Colonial Marines, bringing up a "phased plasma pulse rifle" - the pulse rifles the marines carry are ballistic, not "phased plasma," but the line references The Terminator (1984) (also directed by James Cameron with Paxton in a minor role) in which the Terminator asks a gun store clerk for a "phased plasma rifle."
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Sigourney Weaver had initially been very hesitant to reprise her role as Ripley, rejecting numerous offers from Fox Studios to do any sequels. She feared her character would be poorly written, and a sub-par sequel could hurt the legacy of the original film. However, she was so impressed by the high quality of James Cameron's script - specifically, the strong focus on Ripley, the mother-daughter bond between her character and Newt, and the incredible precision with which Cameron wrote her character, that she finally agreed to do the film.
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In an interview, composer James Horner felt that James Cameron had given him so little time to write a musical score for the film, he was forced to cannibalize previous scores he had done, such as elements from his Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) scores, as well as adapt a rendition of "Gayane Ballet Suite" for the main and end titles. Horner stated that the tensions with Cameron were so high during post-production that he assumed they would never work together again. However, Cameron loved the score from Braveheart (1995) so much, the two mutually agreed that Horner would write the score for Titanic (1997), because it was a story they both wanted to do. They've let bygones be bygones ever since, especially when they won their Oscars for Titanic (1997) and collaborated again 12 years later for Avatar (2009).
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The initial cinematographer was Dick Bush. James Cameron fired him a month into production because he wasn't satisfied with the lighting (the sets were overlit) and the two men reportedly hated working with each other. Cameron then tried to hire Derek Vanlint, the DP on the previous film. Vanlint wasn't interested but recommended Adrian Biddle (pictured left) for the job. Biddle passed away on December 7th, 2005.
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All of the cast who were to play the marines (with the exception of Michael Biehn, who replaced James Remar near the start of filming) were trained by the S.A.S. (Special Air Service, Britain's elite special operations unit) for two weeks before shooting. Sigourney Weaver, Paul Reiser, and William Hope didn't participate or attend the training, because director James Cameron felt it would help the actors create a sense of detachment between the three and the marines; the characters these three actors played were all outsiders to the squad: Ripley being an advisor to the marines while on the trip to LV-426, Burke being there just for financial reasons, and Gorman being a newly-promoted Lieutenant with less experience than most of the marines.
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Having hired James Cameron to write the screenplay, 20th Century Fox then did the unthinkable when he left to direct The Terminator (1984): they agreed to wait for Cameron to become available again and finish his script. Cameron had only completed about 90 pages, but the studio loved what he had written so far.
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The hive set was kept intact after filming. It was later used as the Axis Chemicals set for Batman (1989). When Batman's crew first entered the set, they found most of the Alien nest still there.
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Budget constraints meant they could only afford to have six cryotubes for the scenes set onboard the Sulaco. Clever placement of mirrors and camera angles make it look like there's 12. Each one cost over $4,300 to build.
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One of the perfect locations they found was a decommissioned coal-fired power plant in Acton, West London. The only trouble with it was that it was heavily riddled with asbestos. So, a team was sent in to clean up the plant, and atmosphere readings had to be taken constantly throughout filming in this location to make sure that the air was clear of contamination. Ironically, the Acton location turned out to have better atmospheric quality than Pinewood Studios.
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The APC is a modified tow truck that British Airways used for towing airplanes around at Heathrow. The only trouble was the truck they purchased weighed 75 tons. By stripping out most of the lead used in its construction, they removed about 30 tons.
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Ripley's miniature bathroom in her apartment is actually a British Airways toilet, purchased from the airline.
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The Alien Queen required between 14 and 16 operators to bring her to life.
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The sound effects used for doors opening and closing throughout the movie is identical to those created for the "automatic doors" in The Prisoner (1967). Also, early on in the film, the sound of the video phone "ring" when Ripley calls Burke is the same as that used for the Village telephones in The Prisoner.
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Since production took place in England, the director and producers conveniently cast many American actors who were already living in that country. This was particularly important for the actress playing Newt who had to be a minor. Carrie Henn (Newt) was an American girl living with her family in England (actually, a bit of an English accent can be heard when she says, "Let's go," and, "There is a short-cut across the roof," during the Alien attack at the end of the movie). Her movie brother Timmy (seen only in the Special Edition) is also her real-life brother Christopher Henn.
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Although the first draft of the script (not the treatment) turned in on May 30th, 1985, was very close to the final film, there are some interesting differences. Those include:
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A shower scene with Ripley in a futuristic bathing environment.
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Ripley going into more detail about the Facehugger while briefing the marines, calling the creature "a walking sex organ" to which Hudson replies, "Sounds like you, Hicks."
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There are thirty atmospheric processing units on the planet as opposed to only one in the final film.
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Newt formally offering to be Ripley's daughter.
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Bishop encountering an Alien while crawling along the tunnel (this scene also appeared in the final script but neither in the Theatrical Cut nor in the SE).
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The second Dropship refueling itself before leaving the Sulaco under Bishop's remote control.
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The first draft also included a scene with a cocooned Burke, which was shot but not included in any of the versions of the movie.
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According to IMDB, the closeups of the Powerloader's feet are a trademark of the director since Cameron often has shots of feet/shoes/boots.
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When Ripley is lying asleep in her cryotube at the beginning of the movie, the shot fades to a picture of earth with her face fitting directly into the silhouette of the planet. Nice cuts like these are a trademark of the director.
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Cameron often has nukes in his movies (The Terminator, The Abyss, True Lies). In this film, Ripley suggests nuking the site from orbit, and Hicks agrees.
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James Cameron had the actors (the marines) personalize their own costumes (battle armor and fatigues) for added realism (much like soldiers in Vietnam wrote and drew things on their own helmets). Actress Cynthia Dale Scott who plays Cpl. Dietrich has the words, "BLUE ANGEL," written on the back of her helmet. Marlene Dietrich was of course the star of Der blaue Engel (1930) or Blue Angel. Bill Paxton has "Louise" written on his armor. This is a dedication to his real-life wife, Louise Newbury.
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The mechanism used to make the Facehuggers thrash about in the stasis tubes came from one of the flying piranhas in Cameron's earlier movie Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981). It took nine people to make the Facehugger work: one person for each leg and one for the tail.
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James Cameron had several designers come up with ideas for the Dropship that took the marines from the Sulaco to the planet. Design after design, he finally gave up on them and built his own out of an Apache Helicopter model and other spare pieces.
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Like most films, the movie wasn't shot in sequence. But for added realism, Cameron filmed the scene where we first meet the Colonial Marines (one of the earliest scenes) last. This was so that the camaraderie of the marines was realistic because the actors had spent months filming together.
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There was talk of bringing H.R. Giger back to do more design work for Aliens, but Cameron decided against it because there was only one major design to be done, that of the Alien Queen, which Cameron had already done some drawings of.
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There were two versions of the "Bug Stompers" logo designed for the movie, one wearing sneakers, and one wearing combat boots as seen on the Dropship.
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A set design company offered to build James Cameron a complete and working APC vehicle from scratch, but the cost was far too high for the budget he had in mind.
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While salary negotiations were going on with Sigourney Weaver to reprise her character in the second movie, the studio asked James Cameron to work on an alternate storyline excluding Ripley, but Cameron refused to do so since the series is all about her.
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When the soldiers arrive on LV-426 and jump out of the APC, there's a closeup of their boots hitting the mud. Showing feet/shoes/boots is a trademark of the director according to IMDB. Another example is when she drives the APC, and you see Ripley's shoes as she floors the accelerator.
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Except for a very small reference in Alien, the Special Edition of this film is the first to reveal the name of "the company" as Weyland-Yutani. The name is clearly written on several walls and pieces of equipment in the colony prior to the Alien outbreak.
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Only six Alien suits were used, and even then, they were mostly just a handful of latex appliances on black leotards. The appearance of hundreds of Aliens is simply clever editing, planning, and lighting plus slime helped make the "suits" more solid.
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The body mounts for Vasquez's and Drake's smart guns are from Steadicam gear.
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The pulse rifles that the marines use are made from a Thompson M1A1 machine gun with a Franchi SPAS 12 shotgun underneath.
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The M-56 smart guns and the sentry guns built for the movie were designed around German MG 42 machine guns (most recognizable on the smart guns where the MG 42's characteristic recoil booster muzzle is clearly visible). The gun is mounted on a heavily modified steadicam harness - the MG 42 alone (without the additional cosmetic dressing and ammunition) weighs in at about 25 pounds.
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The helmets the marines wear are modified M-1 ballistic helmets.
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When filming the scene with Newt in the duct, Carrie Henn kept deliberately blowing her scene so she could slide down the vent, which she later called a slide three stories tall. James Cameron finally dissuaded her by saying that if she completed the shot, she could play on it as much as she wanted. She did, and he kept his promise.
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A lightweight dummy model of Newt (Carrie Henn) was constructed for Sigourney Weaver to carry around during the scenes just before the Queen chase.
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The camo pattern of the marines was custom made for the movie, but it's often confused with one called "frog and leaf," which is no longer in production.
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None of the models or the original designs of the Narcissus (the Nostromo's shuttle) from Alien could be found so set designers and model-makers had to reconstruct the ship's model and the interior set from watching the first film.
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Bishop's knife trick was previously seen in John Carpenter's Dark Star. Like Bishop, Boiler misses too. It also appears in Roman Polanski's Nóz w wodzie (1962), and Alien vs. Predator (2004).
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"Sulaco" is the name of the town in Joseph Conrad's "Nostromo."
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Michael Biehn's character gets bitten on the hand by another person. This happens to him in every Cameron movie he's been in including The Abyss and The Terminator.
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Aliens was voted the 42nd greatest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly. They describe it as the "greatest pure action movie ever."
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Al Matthews, who plays a marine sergeant in this film, was in real life the first black marine to be promoted to the rank of sergeant in the field during service in Vietnam.
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In both the Theatrical Cut and Special Edition, the fifteen minute countdown at the end of the film is indeed fifteen minutes.
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In a deleted scene, Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) daughter was played by Elizabeth Inglis, Sigourney Weaver's real-life mother.
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When the set crews were looking around for floor grating to use on the Sulaco set design, they asked a local set design manufacturer/shop if they had anything of the sort. Indeed they did, an immense pile of old floor grating had been sitting out in the back of their shop for the last seven years. It was left there from when they tore down the set of Alien.
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Bishop states that "it is impossible for me to harm, or by omission of action allow to be harmed, a human being." This is based upon the First Law of Robotics written by science fiction author Isaac Asimov.
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The pouch Ripley takes onto the lift at the end of the movie is a British Armed Forces respirator haversack.
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The Med Lab door open/close sound effect is the travel pod door open/close sound effect from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
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In the scene in the air shaft where Vasquez shoots the alien with a handgun, Jenette Goldstein could not handle the recoil of the gun properly. As a result, producer Gale Anne Hurd doubled for Vasquez in shots where the gun is fired. She was the only woman available who had experience firing handguns. Goldstein's flinching at the firing of a gun is also masked during the operations room fight immediately preceding the air shaft scene, when Vasquez is seen firing two grenades at the aliens - for the first one, there's a barely visible cut (Goldstein's head changes position suddenly) and for the second shot there is a smash-cut away from her face at the moment of firing.
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Three different types of smoke were used in the film, one of which has since become illegal on movie sets.
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One of the alien eggs used in the film is now exhibited in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
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The Alien Queen has transparent teeth, which is different from the Warrior Aliens.
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According to myth, the name for the company, "Weyland-Yutani", was taken from the names of Ridley Scott's former neighbors - he hated them so he decided to "dedicate" the name of the "evil company" to them. In reality, the name was created by conceptual designer Ron Cobb (who created the Nostromo and the crew's uniforms) to imply a corner on the spacecraft market by an English-Japanese corporation. According to himself, he would have liked to use "Leyland-Toyota" but obviously could not so he changed one letter in Leyland and added the Japanese name of his (not Scott's) neighbor.
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Sigourney Weaver threatened not to do any more Alien films after seeing the movie's final cut. As a compromise, the 1987 Special Edition was released on Laserdisc.
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The colony on LV-426 is named, "Hadley's Hope" with a population of 158. This is revealed in the Special Edition, and if you look carefully, the saying, "Have a Nice Day," is painted on the sign.
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In the scene where Burke and Ripley are discussing her psych evaluation results, a People magazine can be seen on a table.
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During the scene inside the APC before the marines investigate the colony, "El riesgo siempre vive!" can be seen scrawled in white across Vasquez's armor. Literally translated from Spanish this is, "Risk always lives!"; a variant of Cicero's famous quote, "Luck favors the bold."
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United States Colonial Marines personnel service numbers:
- SFC Apone, A A19/TQ4.0.32751E8
- Pt Crowe, T A46/TQ1.0.98712E6
- Cpl Dietrich, C A41/TQ8.0.81120E2
- Pt Drake, M A23/TQ2.0.47619E7
- Cpl Ferro, C A71/TQ9.0.09428E1
- Pt Frost, R A17/TQ4.0.61247E5
- Lt Gorman, S A09/TQ4.0.56124E3
- Cpl Hicks, D A27/TQ4.0.48215E9
- Pt Hudson, W A08/TQ1.0.41776E3
- Pt Spunkmeyer, D A23/TQ6.0.92810E7
- Pt Vasquez, J A03/TQ7.0.15618E4
- Pt Wierzbowski, T A14/TQ8.0.20034E7
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Many of the characters in the movie whose first names are never mentioned actually share the first name of the actor/actress portraying them: e.g. Sgt. Al Apone (Al Matthews), Cpl. Collette Ferro (Colette Hiller), Pfc. Jenette Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), Pvt. Mark Drake (Mark Rolston), Pvt. Daniel Spunkmeyer (Daniel Kash), Pvt. Ricco Frost (Ricco Ross), Pvt. Trevor Wierzbowski (Trevor Steedman), and director Paul van Leuwen (Paul Maxwell).
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In the original script, when Ripley is rescuing Newt, she encounters a cocooned Burke (Paul Reiser) in the power plant. He claims he can feel the chestburster inside him and asks for help. Ripley gives him a live grenade and moves on. This was filmed. More details under the Deleted Scenes subsection.
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The scene where the Sulaco's crew is being revived from cryosleep, the monitor which lists each crew member's names are their character's name followed by the actors' actual first initial except for "Hicks, D", "Ripley, E." and "Gorman, S."
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Producers David Giler and Walter Hill were keen to work with James Cameron after having read his script for The Terminator. Cameron went in for a meeting with the two and pitched several ideas at them, none of which they were that receptive to. As he was leaving, however, they did mention they were thinking of doing a sequel to Alien, and immediately, Cameron was interested. Cameron submitted a 40-50 page treatment of what he would do for "Alien II," which contained a lot of ideas for an existing treatment he did for a script called, "Mother." Giler and Hill loved Cameron's treatment and commissioned him to write a screenplay. Cameron got the good news the same day he landed screenwriting duties for Rambo: First Blood Part II.
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To most of the crew, the choice of James Cameron as director was mystifying since The Terminator (1984) hadn't been released yet. The film's assistant director continually questioned Cameron's decisions and was openly antagonistic towards him. Ultimately, producer Gale Anne Hurd had no choice but to fire him, and he briefly instigated a mass walk-out from the rest of the crew. Fortunately, this was quickly resolved but caused some doubt as to whether the film would make it to completion.
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James Horner wasn't particularly happy with the treatment of his score for the film despite receiving his first Oscar nomination. He delivered a finished score that didn't sit well with the edited film. Because Horner was unavailable as he was working on another movie at the time, James Cameron had to heavily chop up the music to fit his edit. (A Deluxe Edition of his score has since been released by Varèse Sarabande.)
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Michael Biehn got the call on a Friday night asking him to take over the role of Hicks. He was in London to start shooting on the following Monday.
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Lance Henriksen caught a dose of food poisoning from the milk and yogurt combination that he had to spew up when his chest was pierced by the alien queen's tail. Having this lactose combination sitting around under hot studio lights created a bacterial breeding ground. Curiously, the crew of the first Alien opted not to use milk for Ash's "death" scene (where he also spews the milky substance out of his mouth) as they thought a fluid made of milk would go sour under the hot lights.
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James Horner's schedule only allowed for him to work on the film for 6 weeks. He arrived in London to perform his duties, only to find that they were still shooting, much less editing. He sat around for 3 weeks before being able to get started.
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The music that plays when the Alien Queen appears as Ripley and Newt wait for the elevator is a reused piece from Jerry Goldsmith's score for the original Alien. Thematically, the music appears in both movies at the same time: near the end, as Ripley tries to escape from an Alien while the environment around her counts down to self-destruct (the Nostromo in Alien and the Atmosphere Processor in Aliens).
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During the scene when they have landed and deployed in the troop carrier, Apone tells the marines they have 10 seconds until they arrive. If you count from here until the first marine jumps out of the carrier and his boots hit the ground, it really is ten seconds.
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The various screens and displays, seen mostly in the backgrounds, are actually TV screens with a video running. The film was shot in the UK where televisions run at 25 frames per second, however, film is normally shot and projected at 24 frames per second! Filming the TV monitors at that speed would cause the TV screens to run out of sync with the film, so they would have flickered terribly. Instead, the shots containing the monitors were taken at 25 frames per second to keep the monitors in sync, so when these are then projected at the standard rate of 24 fps, they now run a bit slower than real-life.
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Some of the sound effects for this film were created with help from the Fairlight, an early Australian-made digital sampler. Though the machine sampled at a now-laughable 8 bit resolution, the Fairlight then cost an astounding 30 thousand dollars (USD) and was state-of-the-art. Musicians such as Jan Hammer, Kate Bush, and Prince have used it extensively throughout their respective careers.
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Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews) was a heavy inspiration for the ornery sergeant Johnson (voiced by David Scully) in the video game Halo. The line "Come on, the corps ain't paying us by the hour!" is heard in the game.
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Sentry guns featured in the Special Edition are of UA 571 model as viewed on their laptop management console. Funny enough, Bill Paxton (Pvt. Hudson) appeared as Lt. Cmdr. Mike Dahlgren in submarine movie U-571.
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In the scene where the crew is getting dressed after waking up from hypersleep, Hudson says, "Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" to which Vasquez answers, "No. Have you?" This is "borrowed" from a Hollywood legend. Columnist Earl Wilson once asked Tallulah Bankhead, "Have you ever been mistaken for a man?" Bankhead responded, "No, darling. Have you?"
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The word "fuck" is used 25 times in the film, 18 of them are spoken by Hudson.
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Stephen Lang auditioned for the role of Carter Burke. He would later play the villain in James Cameron's Avatar (a part that almost went to Michael Biehn).
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The pistol used by Colonial Marines is a Heckler and Koch VP70.
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According to Lance Henriksen, the adding of Hudson's hand to the knife trick was discussed with almost everyone except Bill Paxton.
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The rhyme that Hudson mutters as he's searching for the colonists is from the AC/DC song "Shake a Leg": "Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen..."
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At one time during filming, the APC had an actual roof. But during the "fire in the hole" scene, the actors were actually suffocating from the fire's smoke. After a few tries, the roof of the APC was removed.
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Aliens was never shown to test audiences because editing was not completed until the week before its theatrical release.
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Several references to Heinlein's novel, "Starship Troopers": the prominent use of the military and during the debriefing when Hudson asks if this is a "bug hunt."
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The space station above earth is called Gateway, a possible reference to Frederick Pohl's "Gateway" novel, a sci-fi classic.
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According to IMDB, vents are a trademark of the director, and Aliens has a chase scene through vents. Alien also had a scene in the air ducts though so I really don't think this is accurate, because I don't remember vents being used a lot in other Cameron films.
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Many of Cameron's films (Piranha 2, The Terminator, The Abyss, Titanic, T2) champion strong women, both mentally and physically.
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Most of the movie was filmed under very bluish light to give it a strange and "alien" feel. The colors of the marines' camouflage BDUs and the Humbrol "Brown Bess" used on the Pulse Rifles were all chosen specifically to work with the blue set lighting. As a result, both look very different under natural light than they did on screen.
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Four actors from this movie appear in various Terminator movies: Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton in the first Terminator movie, and Jenette Goldstein in Terminator 2.
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Footage from this movie was used in a DirecTV commercial.
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Sergeant Apone's full rank is listed as "SFC" on a computer monitor. That is the abbreviation for the current U.S. Army rank of Sergeant First Class, which is usually a platoon sergeant position. The equivalent current U.S. Marine Corps rank would be Gunnery Sergeant, abbreviated GySgt. Sgt. Apone also wears the current Army gold and green stripes of a Sergeant First Class.
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The Special Edition includes extra scenes: Newt's parents discovering the abandoned Derelict Ship on LV-426, Ripley finding out what happened to her daughter, Hudson bragging about the marines' weaponry, robot sentry guns repelling an Alien raid, and Hicks and Ripley exchanging first names. Also, in the additional footage on LV-426 before the colonists discover the Aliens, a child rides a low-slung tricycle similar to one ridden in The Terminator, also directed by James Cameron.
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The title of Alien (1979) in Hungarian is "The 8th Passenger: Death." Consequently, the title of Aliens (1986) is: "The Name of the Planet: Death."
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According to Lance Henriksen, during the film's production, Full Metal Jacket (1987) was also being shot at a nearby location. Because of this, the crews of each movie would often gather together for parties.
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Sigourney Weaver told Cameron she wanted to do three things in the movie: not handle a weapon, die, and make love to an Alien. While none of these wishes came true, she got to do all three in Alien3 and Alien Resurrection.
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