The links here mostly work at night, mostly.
Aliens on Amazon.com
Aliens on IMDB
As an avid fan of this film I have included a few of my own comments; these are marked with an *.
Many of the points I bring up come from James Cameron's own commentary (also required viewing IMHO); these are preceded by "JCC."
Certain comments are marked with a timestamp; this refers to the commentary time, not the film time.
*Burke will state it soon, but it has actually been 57 years since the events of Alien.
*The year is generally accepted to be 2179.
JCC: It is never explicitly stated, but Ripley never in fact sets foot on Earth in this film.
JCC: Despite some initial difficulty nailing down what Cameron wanted, Ray Lovejoy did edit Aliens.
*There were two major cast / crew changes on Aliens. Adrian Biddle replaced DickBush as the cinematographer, and Michael Biehn replaced James Remar as Hicks.
JCC: Cameron got the job to write Aliens because the producers of Alien had read his script for The Terminator and wanted to work with him on something. He was allowed to also direct the film following the success of The Terminator.
JCC: Sigourney Weaver was not brought on board until very late in the writing process. Cameron was asked to pursue a storyline that excluded Ripley which he balked at. As a result Sigourney became the first actress to get $1 million for her role, a role for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
JCC: The robotic cutting arm and laser scanner were not in the initial budget for the film; Cameron paid for them himself.
The New Beverly Cinema
JCC: The reasoning behind the suit design is to suggest that while this is the future, Burke and the other bureaucrats are "suits," and regardless of timeframe, a "suit" is a "suit."
Rear Projection, or RP
Front Projection
(0:13:43) JCC: Sigourney later said that she had based her entire character on this scene. Also the picture Burke shows her is actually Sigourney’s mother.
Look, Helen Mirren!
(0:15:40) *The crew dossiers that appear behind Ripley inthis scene were originally written by Ridley Scott for the cast of Alien, and appear as an “Easter Egg” on older editions of the Alien DVD.
(0:16:45) *Adjusting for inflation from 1986 brings the cost of the Nostromo up to ~ $83 million, still pretty cheap for a spacecraft.
*Michael Biehn states (on one of the Alien 3 special features) that he got paid almost as much for the use of his picture in that film, as he got for actually playing the role of Hicks in Aliens.
(0:20:10) JCC: This entire sequence on the colony comprises an entire reel that was cut from the theatrical release.
“Art is never finished, it is merely abandoned.” - Leonardo Da Vinci (unconfirmed)
Peter’s neighbor in Spiderman 2, Mageina Tovah.
Paul Reiser, as Burke
The Late Shift
Some Alien stuff Bob Burns cares for.
*Fun fact: On the readout that displays the names of everyone in cryosleep, Hudson is missing.
Wierzbowski Hunters
Re: Eddie’s Mom: Newsweek, February 18, 1980“Women in the Military – Should They Be Drafted?”
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics
Ron Cobb designed the “BugStompers” logo on the nose of the dropship.
William Goldman, we mention him a lot.
*Sidebar, my fault, keep reading
*The Smart Gun, is actually a German MG-42 dressed in parts from a motorcycle, and mounted on a steadicam harness.
*A good breakdown of some of the weapons used.
*The incinerators are based on the M-16
*Vasquez carries a Colt 1911
*Gorman carries a Heckler & Koch VP70; also the gun handed to Bishop before his pipe crawl
*Subdued rank, or rank that matches the camouflage of the uniform, came as a result of Vietnam, and a lack of understanding of basic color science. If you’re in a green place, wearing all green, the bright yellow thing on your sleeve, or the shiny metal thing on your headgear, tends to stick out. It didn’t take the enemy too long to learn rank structure and act accordingly.
In case you haven’t seen Star Trek: Lens Flare
Eddie means aeronautics, not avionics
*The APC is a great cheat; watch closely, you never see more than 3 people get out, that’s all there was room for. The interior was a whole other set.
Eddie is either referring to the Daewoo K11, or the XK8
Forces of Geek
Asimovian
Oorah!
Carrie Henn was cast as Newt with no acting experience; Aliens remains her only acting role.
Lance Henriksen had special double-pupil scleral lenses made for the dissection scene, but Cameron deemed them to creepy.
Caseless ammunition
(1:19:10) *The model shop guys did re-create the clear “dome” of the Alien skull, but Cameron had them remove it because these aliens would be jumping around a lot more, and be more prone to the dome being damaged and needing to be replaced.
Footprint in the snow
M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle
(1:45:15) JJC: The little look that Bishop does after "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid," is because he realizes he just made a joke, but since he's not human he’s not sure if it worked.
The closest thing we have to the M41A Pulse Rifle, the G11
*There is an editing mistake as Ripley is arming herself to get newt; she grabs a pulse rifle and a flame thrower off the rack, but sets them down in the wrong order. Grabs rifle, puts down flame thrower, grabs flame thrower, puts down rifle.
(2:30:10): *The Powerloader could either be suspended from cables on the ceiling, or in this case, with a pole armout the back.
The Reebok Alien Stompers sneakers
Last edited by Matt Vayda (2010-03-16 03:39:12)