Aliens is a Legendary Sequel that Perfectly Combines Terror and Action

I haven’t seen Aliens since 2018, back when I was in college. I decided to watch it again 8 years later, and I was blown away by how great this film is. Hollywood doesn’t make films like this anymore. Aliens truly feels like a passion project, from the incredible mind of James Cameron. I’m not sure what the hell this dude was on back in the old days, but man, he knew how to bring his visions to life for his audience. He blended action, terror, and amazing practical creatures in one film that became known as one of the greatest sequels ever made in Hollywood. 

I had so much fun with this movie last night, and I was genuinely scared of the animatronic aliens. The queen was literally controlled by 14–16 puppeteers, and it’s impressive how they were able to make this thing look so damn real! And don’t get me started on the alien spiders…those things used to give me nightmares when I was a child.

We follow the story of Ripley, the same protagonist from the first film, and she is found by a space station, after barely surviving her first encounter with one alien. She speaks with the team on board, learning that 70 families are staying on a planet where a possible alien horde has taken over, but no one believes Ripley, much to her frustration. She is later approached by a man named Burke, claiming that they had lost contact with the planet. Ripley refuses to join at first, but after she wakes up from another nightmare, she calls Burke, determined to wipe out the enemy on this planet. 

Both her and Burke tag along with a group of marines, and they later wake up after a journey of traveling. The team is massive, and we get to know the characters pretty well, dreading what is about to happen to them later. They don’t really take Ripley seriously, and it doesn’t help that she now knows a robot is on board, named Bishop, and she has major trust issues with these robots after her first encounter with one back in the first film that did not go well. (Bastard got some of her friends killed).

They arrive on the planet, and immediately learn that something is very wrong.

 Upon arriving on the planet, they learn that the planet is straight up empty, with no life in sight. The crew is dropped off by two of their flight soldiers, and they wander the area, confused as to what happened to them, and soon find out that Ripley was not lying about her alien encounter. While they are exploring the building, coming across the terrifying spider aliens that were apparently being tested by the crew on the planet, they find only one survivor, a little girl named Newt. Ripley takes it upon herself to look after Newt, determined to keep her safe. 

The crew eventually get to the alien’s nest, and it instantly goes to shit. A huge chunk of the crew is killed, and two of them are taken to get a baby alien implanted in them. Ripley goes to the nest to rescue the crew, and she accidentally destroys the car, to save the few soldiers that were left. The only ones left is Hicks, the second in command, Burke, Ripley, Newt, Gorman, Vasquez, Bishop, and Hudson. Ripley tells a pleading Burke that the planet must be destroyed, to prevent these aliens from taking over more planets. Burke is scared of doing this, due to the consequences with the space station he works for, but Hicks insists that they should take Ripley’s advice. 

The crew decide to call the two flight soldiers to come pick them up, but these two were not aware an alien was on board, and they are both killed. The ship crashes, and the team realizes that they are possibly screwed. They go back to the lab, and learn that whoever has taken over the planet, is laying these eggs, and they need to get out before it’s too late. Burke is still insistent that getting rid of the planet is a bad idea, because he wants to bring back samples of these dangerous aliens to study. 

Then Ripley learns a dark truth. Burke was the reason why the families ended up on this planet, and he never bothered to tell anyone about the alien creatures that was waiting for them.

Then to make matters worse, Bishop informs the crew that the crashed ship had destroyed something on the planet, that will lead to a massive explosion if they don’t get the hell off the planet. The group finds out that there is a another ship they can use, and Bishop offers to go set it up, since he is a robot, and hopefully the aliens won’t bother attacking him. 

He begins his journey, determined to help his remaining crew. 

The situation gets so much worse when the aliens break through to the lab. 

Burke purposely takes away a weapon that Hicks had given to Ripley, locking both her and Newt in the lab containing the spider aliens. Both of them are barely saved by the crew, and they threaten to kill Burke on the spot, when the lights suddenly go off. The crew fights to the death when the aliens break through the ceiling. Hudson fights to the death, as the aliens drag him through the floor. Burke attempts to get the crew killed, locking them inside of random rooms, not realizing that an alien is waiting for him. He dies in fear, killed offscreen. Vasquez and Gorman blow themselves up to save the rest of the crew as Newt leads the crew through the vents, taking them to a possible escape route. 

When the huge explosion happens, Newt falls in another area, finding herself in water. Hicks and Ripley attempt to save her, but she is taken by an alien. They escape when more aliens arrive, and Hicks gets heavily injured by their acid blood when he takes out one of them. Ripley takes him back to the waiting ship, that is now being operated by Bishop. She orders Bishop to take her back to the alien nest, to save Newt. She takes the weapon that Hicks had given her, and goes on a rampage to save Newt. 

She saves Newt from being implanted with an alien baby, and Ripley accidentally finds herself face to face with the alien queen, the one laying the eggs. 

Ripley goes through a huge fight for survival against the alien queen. 

Ripley takes out most of the alien eggs, before escaping from the nest with Newt. They make it to the elevators, but the alien queen is now coming after the duo. They are able to get back to the main area where the ship was supposed to be waiting for them, but Bishop had left the duo behind. Ripley and Newt prepare to die as the alien queen reaches them, but Bishop suddenly appears for the duo, saving both of them from the queen. The lab, along with the rest of the space station blows up, wiping out the aliens for good. Bishop had informed Ripley that he had no choice but to leave temporarily, due to the space station becaming unstable for the ship. 

Ripley thanks Bishop for saving both of them, overcoming her dislike for robots. Bishop is suddenly attacked by the alien queen, who had snuck onboard the ship. She splits Bishop in two, and goes after Ripley and Newt. Before she can kill Newt, Ripley attacks the queen with a machine that was used to pick up objects. They get into a big fight, and Ripley gets the upper hand, and the airway opens up, to launch the queen into space. 

Before Ripley can succeed with this plan, the alien and Ripley both fall into the hole. She escapes from the alien, but the queen latches onto her leg. She opens up the airway, taking away the machine and the queen. Bishop saves Newt, holding onto her before she can be launched into space too. 

Ripley closes up the airway, reuniting with both Newt and Bishop, who is impressed with Ripley’s bravery. The crew that is left, Bishop, Ripley, Newt, and Hicks, all go back to space sleep, preparing to head back home. 

The film ends with Newt and Ripley looking peaceful in their sleep as their ship takes them back home. 

Aliens is such a great sci — fi journey. I freaking love this movie, and I’m so glad this movie exists, because it’s such a fun masterpiece to keep on returning to. I’m aware this movie isn’t exactly horror compared to the first Alien movie, but the concept of these monsters and the way that they torture their victims is what makes this movie so scary to me. 

It’s a terrifying situation, and if it hadn’t been for Ripley, I think everyone would have died. 

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn