In the works as early as the months following the evident success of Ridley Scott’s original 1979 horror success ALIEN, James Cameron took on the mantle of following up the film, partly on being a big ALIEN fan, but also on being a hot director thanks to the success of THE TERMINATOR (1984). Around the same time, Cameron also got some additional success co-writing RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985) with Sylvester Stallone. In terms of what the creativity of that script was, Cameron was quoted as saying ‘The action’s mine, the politics are Stallone’s’
ALIENS has become the yardstick on which all future ALIEN films are compared – and judging by the disappointment of recent efforts, one hopes that there is something more to come.
57 years after the events of ALIEN, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), still drifting in suspended sleep in her capsule in the shuttle, is discovered by a deep-salvage team, but blowing up the Nostromo has caused her to be suspended from active duty. She learns that the planet where the original alien was discovered has been colonised by what is known as terra-formers in a ‘shake-and-bake colony’. Her support, Burke (Paul Reiser) then tells her that the contact has been lost and that if she goes back with a group of soldiers, she will be reinstated in active duty.
She goes along but discovers carnage – and a young girl called Newt (Carrie Henn). As the team ventures further, they discover much more within that they may or may not want to confront.
Essentially keeping to the spirit of Scott’s original and expanding everything in terms of monsters and scope, ALIENS maintains its’ atmospheric suspense and terror throughout (if you haven’t seen it before, be prepared for unexpected scares against the grain) and is one of those rare examples of a sequel surpassing the original.