Ere, guess what -
The sci-fi masterpiece Aliens was released today in 1986! And wouldn't you know it, we've got all the goods on it for your reading pleasure - so let's get to it!
Okay so the first thing worth discussing in regards to Aliens is how lucky James Cameron was in getting it made, and just how much effort he put into it to fully realise his dream. An Alien sequel was very much his dream too, something he was dead set on creating despite a lot of naysayers stating the original was too perfect and that a sequel could potentially tarnish that perfection.
Luckily for Cameron though, following the box office success of Alien Fox was desperate to get a sequel out as quickly as possible, which clashed with the opinions of the films' producers and Ridley Scott. There was no intention to create a sequel on their side of the camp, and their biggest concern was keeping the money they rightfully deserved out of the greedy hands of Fox, who were attempting to siphon additional profits out of them via contractual mumbo jumbo. This went on for some time until eventually the two groups came to a fair agreement - the producers would no longer be obligated to give anymore profits to Fox for the film, but in return they could make a sequel with whoever they pleased, and they could milk the franchise based on that film rather their own.
In then walks James Cameron, who by this point had only worked as a director on one film - Piranha II : The Spawning - and was entering production of his first film, The Terminator. Fox were already impressed with Cameron's potential based just on his hard work on The Terminator's early production cycle, so they agreed to meet him in regards to a script he wanted to run by them - Alien II. Cameron wasn't that happy with the script as he had rushed in order to get it to Fox at the right time, however around this time Terminator's production had halted, which would allow Cameron to have more time to flesh the script out further. Amazingly too, Fox were very supportive of this, agreeing to see the script again in its finished form, an incredible feat given that by this point Fox had been clamouring for an Alien sequel for almost a decade now, but were so confident in Cameron they were willing to wait a little longer.
Fox were absolutely right to give Cameron the chance too, because he used this additional time very wisely when working on the Aliens script. In fact a lot of the scenes he shot for The Terminator were test runs for shots he wanted to use in Aliens, allowing him to fully realise how he wanted to execute certain scenes. Astoundingly also, Cameron was not only writing Aliens and shooting Terminator at the same time, he also co-wrote the script for Rambo II during this time period. The guy sure loves his action movies.
So with Terminator's shooting wrapped up and the script finalised, Fox green-lit the production of Aliens, and Cameron got to work, starting with a plane ride to the UK with his producer/wife Glen Ann Hudd, where they would be shooting at the famous Pinewood Studios, the same place Alien had been shot. This is where Cameron faced one of his greatest challenges - winning over the crew who would be helping him create the sets of the movie.
See the crew assigned to Cameron had mostly all worked on Alien, and given the nature in which a sequel had come around, coupled with their loyalty to Ridley Scott, they were not exactly thrilled to be working with James Cameron, who at this point you have to remember was a complete unknown, and to them was just some American dude coming over to their country to wreck the artistic merit and reputation of their mate's film. Early on in the tensions, Cameron attempted to build a bridge between himself and the crew by putting on an advanced screening of The Terminator, to not only showcase what he was capable of, but as a treat by letting them see the film before anyone else. Not a single member of the crew showed up to his screening.
Things only got worse from there, too. The crew weren't pleased with the 14-hour work days, and would purposefully work as slowly and as little as possible to rile him up. Things then turned nasty when members of the crew begun making personal attacks not only on Cameron, but also on Hudd, claiming she only had the job of producer due to her marriage to him. One of the most vocal dick heads of this clan of work-shy man-children was Cameron's assistant director, who would purposefully play up in front of the crew when dealing with Cameron, and low-key felt he should be the one directing the film himself. In response to this, Cameron fired the guy, and brought in a new assistant director, who was a lot better behaved, which put the fear into the rest of the crew, enough at least to ensure they did their jobs now.
So that's everything Cameron went through, but what about the film's cast, do they have any interesting stories to tell? Fuck yeah they do, so keep reading!
Rebecca Jorden, who mostly plays Newt in the film, mostly, had no real desire to become a film star, auditioning for the film on a whim. Despite having a great time on set, making a long-time friendship with Sigourney Weaver and being subjected to Bill Paxton's potty mouth, Aliens was her one and only film role, and today she works as a teacher.
Before getting the role of Bishop, Lance Henriksen had made a promise to himself that, if this role didn't work out for him, he was going to retire from acting, as his roles up until now hadn't exactly been anything note worthy that he was satisfied with. Luckily it all worked out fine, and Lance has since worked on Tarzan, Pumpkinhead, Tales From the Crypt, and The X-Files.
Poor Paul Reiser, who played the film's prime cut asshole Burke, perhaps played his role of the sinister pawn of Weyland-Yutani a little too well. See whenever a cast member was scheduled to shoot their character's death that day, Weaver would bring them a bouquet of flowers to mark the occasion. But Reiser? He got a bunch of dead flowers. Not only that, but the poor guy was even subject to abuse by his own family, as at the films' premiere his own sister slapped him due to her frustrations of what an absolute prick Burke was.
Al Matthews, who played the hard-cut and takes-no-shit leader of the marines Sgt Apone, is actually a military man himself. Not only that, but he was the first black Marine to be promoted to the rank of sergeant in the field during service in Vietnam. Most bizarrely however, if you watch closely during the loading bay scene where Ripley is showing off her loader skills, Matthews raises his hand to the camera as he laughs, showing a black Masonic ring on his finger.
Bill Paxton, who played one of the film's much loved marine Pvt. Hudson, improvised a lot of his lines, including the iconic "Game over man, Game over!" On the topic of "man", the word is uttered 31 times in the film by Hudson, and of the film's 25 uses of the word fuck, three-quarters of those fucks left the mouth of Hudson. Paxton felt bad having to swear in front of Jorden, and would routinely apologise to her between takes, not that it mattered, as Jorden admitted she had no idea what any of the words he used meant.
And of course we've saved the best cast member til last - Sigourney Weaver, who returned once again to play Ellen Ripley. Weaver was very vocal of how she believed Ripley should be portrayed in the film, bringing her ideas to Cameron, who was more than happy to accommodate her input, sculpting her character into more of an action hero taking no shit during the horrific events of the film. She also fought for the full cut of the film that included around 17 minutes of additional footage cut from the film, including the scene in which she learns her daughter has died of old age during her hypersleep. The woman portraying Ripley's daughter, pictured briefly on a tablet Ripley is given, is actually Weaver's own mother.
Behind the scenes there is also some further interesting bits of trivia worth knowing, such as how British Airways aided the production. They lent the production two of their assets, including a bathroom used in Ripley's tiny apartment at the start of the film, and a tow vehicle used for pulling planes which was repurposed into the armoured vehicle used to drop off the marines. The scene in which the marines are dropped off is also notable as when Apone states they are ten seconds away, the footage does indeed last ten seconds between that statement and the marines stepping out onto Hadley's Hope. Cameron used this same attention to detail later in the film, when a 15 minute countdown is initiated in the film's big climax, which does indeed last 15 minutes.
The power station set used to house the alien nest in this climax may also be recognisable to fans of Tim Burton's Batman, as it is the same set used for the chemical planet where Jack Nicholson falls into a vat of acid to become The Joker. Apparently when the crew of Batman arrived at the set to begin setting up for the shoot, there were still pieces of alien nest attached to it, which must've been kinda creepy. On the topic of the aliens, you may also be surprised to discover that the xenomorph's screams were actually the scream of baboons altered to sound more alien, and as with the previous film, the sets were usually dripping in KY Jelly to create the Alien saliva.
Finally, for fans of Aliens and footwear, you may be pleased to know that Ripley's shoes in the film were re-created and sold as an official product by Reebok, and can still be purchased today, though for a hefty price.
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