Aliens (1986)

[Hiyo]

One of the best sci-fi actions movies ever, and also one of the best sequels ever.

 

[BetterButter]

 

[Enero]

I recently rewatched this. James Cameron did a great job taking the franchise to the next level. This was arguably the best movie out of the franchise. 

Everytime I watch this movie I wonder though,  why would anyone want to live on LV426? A mean the money they made to set up the atmosphere processors must’ve been so good no one who was made an offer would refuse the job. Because that planet looked like hell. It appeared to be covered in dark clouds, extremely windy and storming all the time and had no trees or greenery. It was a planet that looked like death, even after the air processors were set up. 

Also, I’m surprised more wasn’t done by the company to push the colonists towards discovering the alien ship sooner. As desperate as they were to get their hands on the alien biology for their weapons division, I don’t think they would’ve waited 20 years for a family to just happen upon the ship. 

Lastly, though I understood Ripley’s logic in going back out there to destroy the aliens which she hoped would help her recover from the ongoing  nightmares etc. she suffered due to the trauma she experienced  from the death and destruction on the Nostradamus, she was crazy to trust the company again, even with the mission being under military jurisdiction. I was very disappointed in how things ended for her due to her decision to go back out there. 

Still this is one of the best action sci-fi movies out there, and continues to hold up very well, even after 30+ years. 

[raven]

32 minutes ago, Enero said:

As desperate as they were to get their hands on the alien biology for their weapons division, I don’t think they would’ve waited 20 years for a family to just happen upon the ship. 

I thought maybe it was something the company hoped for but didn't expect them to find? The aliens, I mean.  They may have thought "oh it was just that one but if the colonists find more, great!"   It's been a while since I've seen the movie though.

IIRC, Ripley only agreed to go out there when the colonists were reported missing.   

Love this movie - so much great stuff - Ripley, a fantastic hero; Michael Biehn at his hottest; Lance Henriksen for being all around awesome; Paul Reiser as a great villain; battle of the moms at the end; one of my favorite death scenes in a movie.

Even though I've watched them, there are no other Alien movies after this one.  

[AstaCharles]

3 hours ago, raven said:

Even though I've watched them, there are no other Alien movies after this one.  

Ditto.

 Paxton, Henrikson, & Goldstein did Near Dark after this, one of my favorite vampire movies. 

[Hiyo]

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why would anyone want to live on LV426

I thought they were there to terraform the planet, no?

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she was crazy to trust the company again, even with the mission being under military jurisdiction

I thought the company was legit in that is was a genuine rescue mission. It was Burke who took the initiative to try and get an alien or two himself so that he could try and profit from it himself with the company. Kind of acting like a free agent.

[Enero]

13 hours ago, raven said:

IIRC, Ripley only agreed to go out there when the colonists were reported missing.   

When they initially asked her to go, after they lost contact with the colonists, she ridiculed them and refused their request. However, when she had another nightmare about the aliens she called Burke and agreed to go. So I think it was more about putting to bed the trauma she suffered on the Nostradamus rather than some attempt to save the colonist. She knew that if they were missing, the likelihood of them being in any condition to be rescued was unlikely. 

4 hours ago, Hiyo said:

I thought they were there to terraform the planet, no?

They were but they had to live there to prepare the planet for long term inhabitants. Don’t know how long it would take for the planet to be ready for mass migration but they’d been they’d been there for 20 years, and the planet though livable in that it had breathable air still had a long way to go before it’d be somewhere anyone would want to live long term. 
 

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I thought the company was legit in that is was a genuine rescue mission. It was Burke who took the initiative to try and get an alien or two himself so that he could try and profit from it himself with the company. Kind of acting like a free agent.

According to Ripley, Burke knew about the aliens on the planet and was the one who authorized the colonist going there. Moreover in Alien Ash was working for the company, who had instructed him to bring the alien species back to Earth for study. Perhaps the entire company wasn’t backing Burke, but I’m thinking there may have been a sector of the company that was still after the alien DNA. Hence Burke’s actions. And of course this is further confirmed in Alien 3.

I did think one plot hole in the movie was the timeline. Ripley was floating out in space for 57 years before being picked up by a salvage ship, but then the colonist was said to have only been on the alien planet for 20 years with Burke giving the authorization in 1979. Unless he authorized the move and it took another several years for it to be initiated and the colonists to arrive on the planet. Which is possible but the timeline would still be off I think. 

[Hiyo]

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They were but they had to live there to prepare the planet for long term inhabitants. Don’t know how long it would take for the planet to be ready for mass migration but they’d been they’d been there for 20 years, and the planet though livable in that it had breathable air still had a long way to go before it’d be somewhere anyone would want to live long term. 

Yeah but in your original post you mentioned why people would want to live there...they weren't living there per se, they were working there to make the planet livable for others. Most of the colonists on the planet were there for that purpose.

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Perhaps the entire company wasn’t backing Burke, but I’m thinking there may have been a sector of the company that was still after the alien DNA.

Possibly. At the meeting Ripley has with executives from the company, one them (the woman who was smoking) mentions there was nothing on the planet, that it was "just a rock". It's possible they wanted the Alien originally (as in the first movie), got sidetracked for some reason, and then once Burke saw the Aliens were real, and hatched a plan to try and smuggle some back to Earth.

If they really wanted to capture someone of the Aliens, they probably wouldn't have sent a bunch of colonists to terraform the planet, I'd assume they'd have sent some scientists and marines to capture some live specimens.

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with Burke giving the authorization

I don't think Burke would have been old enough to be working for the company when the colonists moved to the planet, if they had been there for 20 years prior to the events of the sequel.

[raven]

11 hours ago, AstaCharles said:

 Paxton, Henrikson, & Goldstein did Near Dark after this, one of my favorite vampire movies. 

Yes!  That was a good movie.

46 minutes ago, Enero said:

When they initially asked her to go, after they lost contact with the colonists, she ridiculed them and refused their request. However, when she had another nightmare about the aliens she called Burke and agreed to go.

Right, I remember now. "You don't need me".  Then when she wakes from another nightmare, she calls Burke.   Maybe I need to watch this again. 

I remember seeing the extended version, with shots of Ripley's now-deceased daughter, but I don't recall the extra scenes adding anything.

 

[Hiyo]

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I remember seeing the extended version, with shots of Ripley's now-deceased daughter, but I don't recall the extra scenes adding anything.

I think they add a bit more context to Ripley's relationship to Newt.

[Enero]

6 hours ago, raven said:

Yes!  That was a good movie.

Right, I remember now. "You don't need me".  Then when she wakes from another nightmare, she calls Burke.   Maybe I need to watch this again. 

I remember seeing the extended version, with shots of Ripley's now-deceased daughter, but I don't recall the extra scenes adding anything.

 

5 hours ago, Hiyo said:

I think they add a bit more context to Ripley's relationship to Newt.

Yeah. The extra scenes really didn’t add much, it just added more depth to Ripley’s attachment to Newt.

 

6 hours ago, Hiyo said:

 

I don't think Burke would have been old enough to be working for the company when the colonists moved to the planet, if they had been there for 20 years prior to the events of the sequel.

Agreed.  That’s why I was saying this was a plot hole in the movie. The timeline didn’t make sense when scrutinized more closely.

 

[Hiyo]

I think Burke's authorization was for the colonists to check out the facehugger nest once they stumbled upon it, maybe. So it does fit.

[raven]

I know the point of the deleted scene - for me, it was unnecessary.   I didn't need extra context for Ripley's relationship with Newt.  YMMV.

Regarding the timeline, the way I think of it is that the Company (capital C because they're evil) left the planet alone for a while.  IIRC, it wasn't exactly close to Earth.   The loss of the Nostromo cost them some $$, as they like to remind Ripley.   Maybe there was a management shakeup after the Nostromo disaster, before Ripley is found.    They probably didn't send anyone out there prior to the terraforming project - bad PR, money, who knows.  Then they send the colonists, figuring if the terraforming goes off without a hitch, fine; if aliens are discovered; fine. There's also the possibility that with the Nostromo diversion being such a failure, management cleaned house and no one currently there was part of that decision. All they had to go on during the time period before Ripley is found are Ash's reports.    Maybe Burke looks it up after Ripley's testimony.

2 hours ago, Hiyo said:

I think Burke's authorization was for the colonists to check out the facehugger nest once they stumbled upon it, maybe. So it does fit.

I thought Burke told them to look for it after Ripley tells the Board what happened.  At that time, everything is ok "it's a rock".  The colonists go missing some time after the meeting where Ripley tells the Board about the aliens and presumably, where the ship was.  Ripley says to Burke (when they're trapped on the planet) that he knew and sent them (colonists) there.   It's the scene where she says "signed Burke, Carter J."   So either he was part of a weapons division or he took the initiative himself.    The site was just the ship and the eggs, waiting for someone to stumble on it.

Now, why no one exploring the planet ventured farther than where they colonizing, or why there wasn't some kind of survey done on the planet, is another question.

[jah1986]

Just saw the extended Director's cut of this a few weeks ago.  Re: why no one ventured out further was because the planet was beyond hostile, with regards to the elements.  Newt's dad found the ship and called it in, part of the conversation was to ensure that he got credit for the "claim". It seems that the workers on the planet was sort of like gold prospectors in one sense.  Then Newt's dad came back to their family "car" with a face hugger and the rest is history...

[Enero]

On 5/8/2022 at 6:07 PM, raven said:

Now, why no one exploring the planet ventured farther than where they colonizing, or why there wasn't some kind of survey done on the planet, is another question.

Perhaps the planet was 2-3 times the size of the Earth. They might’ve had the technology to do some type of air survey to check for the type of terrain on the planet which would help determine the best place to set up the equipment to colonize and convert the planet to a viable place to live, but a vehicle /foot survey was probably rare and limited. There were only 157 people on the planet and all (with the exception of children) were likely working long hours on the terraforming. So not much time for exploring too far outside the parameters where they were located. Additionally, as @jah1986 said the environment on the planet was extremely hostile, which likely discouraged most from doing much exploration outside of the set parameters for the terraforming installment. 

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Ripley says to Burke (when they're trapped on the planet) that he knew and sent them (colonists) there.   It's the scene where she says "signed Burke, Carter J."   So either he was part of a weapons division or he took the initiative himself.    The site was just the ship and the eggs, waiting for someone to stumble on it.

Yep. Which is why the colonist had been living in peace on the planet for 20 years. The eggs were just sitting there dormant until some form of life arrived which could play host and facilitate their reproduction. Honestly that was pretty crazy that those eggs were able to remain viable for more than 57 years. What was sustaining them for all that time?  Would they have eventually become sterile, for lack of a better word, if they remained there forever without hosts?

Regarding Burke I do think he worked for the weapons division. That would explain why he was able to exclusively assign the military (marines at that) to the mission to investigate what happened with the colonists. 
 

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 There's also the possibility that with the Nostromo diversion being such a failure, management cleaned house and no one currently there was part of that decision

Well it had been 57 years since the disaster. So it’s unlikely anyone who was with the company back then was still there or even still alive. Moreover, the colonists had only been on the planet for 20 years. That was nearly 40 years after Nostromo went missing. What happened with that ship had probably been long forgotten until Ripley was found floating out in space.

 With that said, in Alien the crew was deliberately sent to that planet so that Ash could bring the alien back to the Company for study. So the company had come across this organism before and knew it existed on LV426 (note this planet is different from the planets in Prometheus and Alien Covenant). How long they’d known before the Nostromo was sent there is anyone’s guess. But as you said, with time and change in management and perhaps other explorations for alien organisms, what existed on LV426 was probably forgotten until Ripley returned, which renewed the Company’s interest in finding the alien.

 

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Enero