Game over man, game over

While the remaining team wait for evacuation, we see the outside world. Looking at the environment, it can’t be a coincidence that the rocks on the planet surface bear a similarity to the protrusions on the aliens’ backs – subconsciously reminding us of their unseen presence. 

In this one scene, we have both the best and the worst of what Aliens has to offer. We see the team’s hopes dashed, hear Hudson’s memorable Game over line, watch Hicks take up the mantle of leadership, and bear witness to the infamous Newt line: mostly come at night. The dialogue and delivery of this line have been derided ever since, especially in the TV series South Park, and rightfully so. If this movie is as close to perfect as you can get, this is the one mark against it.

During the following map scene, we see a complete reversal in roles. The marines' technology has failed them, and they have now turned Ripley’s ingenuity. At first a fifth wheel, she is now the brains behind their survival attempt. In fact, Ripley is so essential the team’s future, Hicks gives her a tracker.

In these slow scenes, you can really appreciate the craft that has gone in to the world on screen. All of the sets feel real, futuristic, but at the same time old, lived in. The same can’t be said for the likes of recent sci-fi movies where everything looks too clean and perfect. People are messy, and the future is dirty. This is one of the reasons why the film gets under your skin. It feels real, the combination of a very real world, inhabited by real people, facing a horrific situation. We are there, alongside them, and we can’t take our eyes off the screen.

It’s more than just action and special effects, you have characters, craft, theme and subtext.

“It must be something we haven’t seen.”

During their discussions on the alien species, they talk about reproduction which leads them to assume that something must be laying the eggs. Eggs, birth motherhood, all themes throughout the movie. Ripley’s maternal instinct to protect Newt, her surrogate child, is so strong, that she is willing to fight through her crippling fear and destroy an entire species. Conversely, they realize that there must be a corresponding alien mother, with the same level of furious maternal instinct for her offspring – It’s a great example of cranking the tension – suggesting the implications of an even worse entity than that which they have already seen, with the same, if not stronger drive to protect her children whatever the cost.

It’s here that we see the murky ethics of the corporate dollar at play again. It turns out that Burke signed the order which resulted in the deaths of the colonists. When confronted with this, Burke’s reasoning: avoiding red tape, and his summary: a bad call, show us the reality of corporations driven purely by greed. This bureaucratic bullshit, minimizing human life to a statistic, is a poison to humanity. The human touch is essential wherever technology and rules reside. without it, we fail. 

What this really boils down to is that we have the technological ability to reach the stars, but our morality is still in the gutter.

During the confrontation, Burke’s final attempt at winning Ripley over is a promise of financial stability, but at the cost of ethical integrity. “I thought you’d be smarter than this.” 

She has been the smartest member of the team all along. “We’d better think of a way.” Her response to the next crisis says it all.

This sets into action the final third of the movie, if things weren’t bad enough already. Not only is it a fight to survive, it is also a race against time.

Here we see Hicks and his development as the leader of the group. His simple command of “stay frosty and alert.” is unlike Apone, barking orders; Hicks has the human touch. This empathy, which would be perceived as a weakness in a soldier, is his strength as a leader. 

“If it comes to it, I’ll do us both.” 

He may have a softer side, but he’s all business when he needs to be. This is a true leader.

“I can handle myself.”

“I noticed.”

The pulse rifle scene between Hicks and Ripley starts off logically - a tactical decision by Hicks to arm his team, but it takes on a more human charm, through their mutual attraction.

They have genuine chemistry. It’s this moment of connection between two people in a time of not only stress, but sheer terror that shows the best side of humanity, how we are at our best when things are at their very worst. The aliens, cold and soulless, are out there, looking for a way to get to the survivors. We identify with these two characters, caring for each other, attracted, wounded. They are not superheroes, they are normal, vulnerable people in extraordinary circumstances. They are just like us, and we desperately want them to survive.