This review is presented as part of my Bill Paxton Project.
Wow, where do I even begin with this one?
Aliens remains one of my all-time favorite films. It’s one of the earliest films I ever saw Bill Paxton in, and remains one of my favorite on-screen performances by him. So, let’s break it down.
Aliens is the 1986 sequel to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi body horror masterpiece Alien (1979). In the first film, a group of interplanetary truckers and miners face off unarmed against a xenomorph alien which slowly slaughters all but one of them. James Cameron upped the ante for the sequel, this time pairing a squadron of heavily armed marines against hundreds of xenomorphs. Let the carnage commence.
Sigourney Weaver reprises her role as Ellen Ripley, sole survivor of the mining tug Nostromo. She is convinced to return to the scene of the crime by a company stuffed shirt named Carter Burke (played by “Mad About You” star Paul Reiser), who also accompanies her. Joining them is a squadron of Colonial Marines commanded by Lieutenant Gorman (played by William Hope). The marines are equipped with an armored APC, two armed drop ships, machine guns, flamethrowers, grenades, tactical nukes…the works. One even brings a sawed-off shotgun “for close encounters”.
The marines are all awesome, and so well played it’s like the characters were written for their actors. Al Matthews, who plays squad leader Sgt. Apone, actually served as a Marine sergeant in Vietnam, so leading this team of misfits played perfectly for him. [He was also a successful singer, releasing a few hit soul albums in the sweet-ass seventies – hunt for them if you’re a fan.] Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton play Corporal Dwayne Hicks and Private William Hudson, respectively. The two had previously appeared together in The Lords of Discipline (1981) and The Terminator (1984), and would reunite later in Navy SEALs (1990) and Tombstone (1994), their fifth and final shared work. [By the way, The Lords of Discipline also included William Hope, so it features three Aliens actors. So does Near Dark (1987), which features Paxton, Goldstein and Henriksen.] Jenette Goldstein and Mark Rolston play Privates Vasquez and Drake, who get to hold the Colonial Marines’ version of gatling guns. Rounding out the marine roster are Ricco Ross as Frost, Daniel Kash as Spunkmeyer, Tip Tipping as Crowe, Trevor Steedman as Wierzbowski, Cynthia Lee Scott as Dietrich and Collette Hiller as Ferro. Lance Henriksen, who also appeared in Cameron’s The Terminator with Biehn and Paxton, appears as polite android “Bishop”.
Naturally, shit goes sideways for the Marines once they reach the planet. Apone, Frost, Dietrich, Crowe and Wierzbowski are quickly dispatched (a bummer for everyone who enjoyed watching Al Matthews chew up screen time and cigars). Biehn’s character is the one rocking the shotgun in this scene, a visual throwback to his Kyle Reese character from The Terminator. Drake is killed in their escape, and Spunkmeyer and Ferro are toasted in a drop ship crash. This leaves just Gorman, Hicks, Hudson and Vasquez to protect Ripley, Bishop and Burke, as well as the orphan girl they find (played by nine-year-old Carrie Henn).
After a little down time to progress some side plots, the aliens attack again, taking out Hudson, Gorman and Vasquez. Newt, the orphan girl, is lost, and Hicks is injured, so it comes down to Ripley against the horde. Of course, Ripley wins. (This movie’s almost 40 years old, I shouldn’t be spoiling anything here).
Bill Paxton’s performance as Hudson should have earned him an Oscar. I was twelve years old when this film was released, and my friends and I were quoting his lines of dialogue for many, many years after this. He plays Hudson as a short-term loose cannon, who’s a little bit psycho, and he eats up his screen time with wide, wild eyes and ear-to-ear grins. He’s a clown who quickly becomes the face of our shared fear of these aliens. His cowardice in some scenes is completely understandable – the man is terrified to die. Despite this, he does finally overcome his fear and earns a hero’s death, sacrificing himself while saving others. He is the only male character who is really given a proper character arc by Cameron, and this arc makes him both memorable and likeable, both offensive and sympathetic. Paxton pulls off every degree of this character arc like a master actor, even though he’s just turned 30 at the time of filming.
Aliens is one of the few sequels ever produced to arguably be considered superior to the original film. That alone should make it worth watching. And, thanks to Disney buying pretty much every property on Earth, you can stream it now on Disney+. At the time of this writing, it’s also streaming on Max, and is readily available on Blu-Ray, DVD and VHS. If you can, look for the “Special Edition”. It adds about 20-30 minutes of run-time, but it’s worth it – the extra scenes make the film richer.
