Released: 1986
Directed By: James Cameron
Written By: David Giler, Walter Hill, James Cameron
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Micheal Biehn, Paul Reiser.
Rating: R
Rent or Buy?: Buy. Excellent Movie.
"There are some places in the universe you don't go alone."
Story:
Lt.Ellen Ripley has been found 57 years after the events that occured in the first "Alien" movie by a deep salvage crew. She is taken to a space command ship where she has re-occuring dreams of an alien bursting from her chest. She is questioned as to why she blown up her starship and what happened to her crew, the commitee interviewing her doesn't believe her and revoke her flight status. Ripley then finds out as to why they just dont go to the planet LB-426 and it is because colonists have been there with terra-formers(make the air breathable). Later, Ripley finds out from Carter Burke and Lt.Gorman that the space-station has lost contact with the colonists on LB-426 and in consideration that she goes as an advisor she will get back her flight status and Ripley agrees. Before landing on the planet the marines that are sent to the planet are briefed by Gorman and Ripley as to what they may encounter. The marines then land on the planet and start searching through the living courters of the colonists. While there they find 3 facehuggers that are in protective glass and find records about them but can find no survivors until their motion sensors start going off and they find a young girl. Ripley talks to the young girl and finds out her name is Rebecca but likes to be called Newt. The marine Hudson then locates the tracking implants for the colonists all of which are under the heating systems, the marines move out. While moving into the heating system area the marines see that the walls are covered with caccoon material and see nothing but dead colonists until they find a survivor who eventually has a baby alien burst out of her chest Sgt. Apone then burns it with a flamethrower. The motion sensors then begin to pick up movement all around the marines, the walls start to move and aliens begin moving upon and attacking the marines. The marines suffer heavy casaulties including Sgt.Apone. Ripley hearing the cries for help by the marines on the radio drives the armored car into the tara-former close to the marines positions, in the end only Pvt.Hudson, Cpl.Hicks, Pvt. Vasquez, and Pvt.Drake make it back to the car but on the outside of the car Vasquez fires upon an alien and its blood(concentarted acid) spills upon Drake killing him. During the escape Ripley runs over an alien and Gorman suffers a concussion from boxes falling upon his head. Hicks who then assumes command decides to lift off from the planet and nuke the site even though Burke objects to this due to the amount of the terraformers but he secretly wants to get an alien to be examined. While the ship is coming to back up Ripley, Newt, Burke and the leftover marines but the pilots inside are attacked by and alien and the ship crashes and explodes. Bishop(the cyborg sent along for mission) then goes out to remotely control the extra ship to come pick them up and bring them back to the space station in orbit around the planet. The marines then decide to barricade themselves into the medroom of the colonist complex until the ship lands. Ripley puts Newt to bed in a room, she then exchanges words with Gorman who has now awoken after his concussion and finds out that Burke signed papers for the colonists to go out and look for where Ripley said the eggs on the planet were and tells Burke that she will see he is prosecuted for this. Ripley then goes back to Newts room and sleeps with her. She awakens to see two empty canisters on the ground, she realizes that they are the cannisters that held the facehuggers the marines found, Ripley reaches for the gun that she brought with her in the room but finds it is missing. Ripley wakes Newt up and tries to escape the room but the door is locked and she cant break the glass but she is able to alert the marines by holding her lighter to the fire prevention causing the alarm to go off and the marines rush to her aid thinking there is a fire. Ripley is then attacked by a facehugger in the room, the marines get there and Hudson shoots the glass which Hicks jumps through. Vasquez and Hicks pull the fachugger off of Ripley and Vasquez is able to shoot it while Hudson shoots the other that was after Newt. Ripley then reveals that it was Burke that let the facehuggers go in the room to "impregnate" Newt and Ripley to get them through security and have two alien specimens. Drone aliens then cut the power to the medlab rooms and emergency lighting comes on and motion sensors start going off and then the marines realize that they didnt barricade the roof above them and aliens start dropping through the ceiling. The marines then start holding off the aliens and Burke runs away and closes the door behind them in an attempt to trap them but he is attacked by an alien in another room. During the gunfight Hudson starts firing ferociously and cursing continuously but is grabbed by an alien underneath of the floor and Hicks tries to save him but the alien is too strong and pulls Hudson down. Vasquez, Gorman, Hicks, Ripley and Newt then escape into a back room and barricade it somewhat and they start going through a ventilation shaft which Newt showed to Ripley and start heading to where Hudson is. In the shaft Vasquez is able to fight off many aliens but is injured when one drops from the roof on her and while shooting it she gets acid on her feet, Gorman goes back for her and starts fending off aliens infront and behind him but eventually runs out of ammo. Vasquez and Gorman, with aliens coming closer and closer to them blow themselves up and several aliens with a grenade. The explosion causes Newt to fall down a shaft when she was trying to get up another into a sewage system of the complex. Hicks and Ripley then track her down by a tracker Ripley gave her earlier and are able to find her and hicks start welding through steal grating to get to her when the motion sensor starts going off. Newt is then grabbed by an alien just as Hicks is about to cut through and when Ripley looks down all she sees is Newt's doll. Hicks and Ripley must make it to the ship which Bishop landed in the landing pad. As they make it to the elevator and alien holds onto the door and Hicks shoots it and blocks the acid from hitting Ripley by using himself as a human shield. Ripley is able to help Hicks onto the ship. Ripley then has Bishop fly her to the heating system where he lands on a pad waiting for her as she searches for Newt. After extensive searching she finds Newt and accidentally stumbles into a room full of eggs and the one who has been laying the eggs-A Queen Alien. Ripley then starts setting eggs on fire with a flamethrower and destroys the Queen's aparatus for laying eggs by shooting it with grenades. Ripley and Newt then begin heading for the exit but the Queen stalks them. Ripley is able to make it to the elevator and her and Newt go up to the landing pad to find the ship is gone. The second elevator then begins to go up and reaches the landing pad and the Queen alien comes out but then the ship comes along and Ripley and Newt are able to escape even though part of the ship's landing gear crashes into the side of the complex. The complex then explodes due to the self-destruct sequence which was activated earlier by accident. Back at the space station Bishop explains to Ripley why he wasn't on the landing pad and then out of nowhere Bishop is stabbed through the chest by the Queen's tail who was hidden in the landing gear and she rips him in half. The Queen then chases after Ripley who goes into a storage room and closes the door behind her. The Queen begins stalking Newt and then Ripley comes out in a power loader and begins fighting with the Queen and is able to drop it into a dumping hole but the Queen grabs onto the loader and brings Ripley down with her. Ripley begins climbing the ladder out but the Queen grabs onto her foot and Ripleys opens the bay doors as the loader is sucked out into space. The Queen continues to hold on but Ripley's shoes is ripped off her foot and the Queen is sucked out into space, Ripley then climbs the rest of the ladder and closes the bay doors. Afterwards, Ripley and Newt put Hicks and Bishop into hypersleep and targets themselves for the space station at the beginning of the movie. Newt questions Ripley about hypersleep and Ripley reassures her about it and the two put themselves to sleep.
Justin's Review:
if you consider the year and contains lots of action from start to finish. I also find Bill Paxton's character quite humurous due to constant swearing and worrying. All and all this is an excellent movie recommended for everyone and is probably one of my favourites.
Special Trivia:
Look for Jenette Goldstein(Vasquez) as John Connor's foster mother Janelle in "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" which is also directed by James Cameron. The shotgun that Hicks (Michael Biehn) pulls out in case of "close encounters" is the same weapon that Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) used in "The Terminator", another James Cameron film. Bishop states that he cannot "harm a human, or through inaction, allow one to come to harm." This is the First Law of Robotics as written by science fiction author Isaac Asimov.
Hilarious/Memorable Quotes:
Newt: We'd better get back 'cause it'll be dark soon and they mostly come out at night...mostly.
***
Hicks: (pulling shotgun out) I like to keep this handy for close encounters.
***
Hudson: They're coming outta the walls! They're coming out of the goddamn walls!
***
Ripley: Well, someone's gonna have to go down there, take a portable transmitter and patch it
Hudson: Yeah, sure, with those things runnin' around ? You can count me out.
***
Ripley: Newt, these people are here to protect you. They're soldiers.
Newt: It wont make any difference.
***
Ripley: They cut the power.
Hudson: What do you mean they cut the power!? How could they cut the power man? They're animals.
***
Hudson: Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for as a man?
Vasquez: No, have you?
***
Hudson: In case you haven't been paying attention to current events, we just got our asses kicked pal!
***
Ripley: I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. Thats the only way to be sure.
Hudson: Fuckin' A!
Burke: Hold on a minute, this installation has a substantional dollar value attached to it.
Ripley: Well, they can bill me!
***
Ripley: How long are we declared overdue we can expect a rescue ?
Hicks: Seventeen days.
Hudson: Seventeen days? I don't wanna rain on your parade but we ain't gonna last seventeen hours. Those things are gonna come in here like before. And they're gonna come in here...
Ripley: Hudson!
Hudson: And they're gonna come in here and they're gonna kill us!
Ripley: Hudson, this little girl survived longer than that with no weapons and no training.
Hudson: Why don't you just put her in charge!
***
Drake: They ain't payin us enough for this,
Dietrich: Not enough to wake up to your face, Drake.
Drake: What? Is that a joke?
***
Bishop: (reading log in colonist complex) "Surgically removed before embryo implantation. Subject Marachek, John J. Died during procedure." They killed him taking it off.
***
Hicks: (upon getting other marines to armored car) Marines we are leaving!!!
***
Hudson: (firing constantly at aliens comingat him) Come on ! Come get some! Come get it bastards ! Oh, you want some too! (gets grabbed from underneath floor) Fuck you!
Hicks: Hudson!
Hudson: Fuck You!!! Hicks help!!!
***
Newt: My mommy always said there were no monsters, no real ones but there are.
Ripley: Yes there are, aren't there ?
Newt: Why do they tell kids that ?
Ripley: Most of the time it is true...