Two of the best movies EVER. I have to shake my head when people say men don't like movies with a strong, female lead. A lot of us watched "Alien" and "Aliens" (and "Terminator" and "Terminator 2") DOZENS of times as kids and young adults, and no one EVER complained that Ripley was the lead and carried the show. We like well-crafted movies, regardless of whether the lead is male or female. Sigourney Weaver was PERFECT for the role, and the added character nuance in "Aliens" was really well done. I always feel bad that everyone hates on Hudson. Among Bill Paxton's (RIP) many talents was the ability to convincingly portray REALLY obnoxious characters... but even as annoying as he was at points, Hudson went out like a HERO.
She might look familiar, but Carrie Henn who played Newt didn't do any other films after Aliens. She only did this one iconic role and later on she became a school teacher.
@@mattreaction hey guys, this was the kids only acting role, wow can you believe it? Also she became a teacher, just in case you didn't already see this comment the other 40,000 times people posted it.
Cameron's made the two best sequels ever, regardless of genre, imo.. yea yea... godfather II, but I prefer goodfellas over both GF movies as it's based on a true story, not a novel and has far superior acting (outside of pacino).. at least imo
In Aliens, Paul Rizer took his mom to the premier. When Burke is taken down by the Alien, he said his mother clapped louder than the rest of the audience.
I'm so glad you watched the extended version of Aliens. The background info about Ripley outliving her daughter added a lot to the story, and made Newt's cry of "Mommy!" at the end all the more endearing . . .
It's not really an "extended" version. It's Cameron's final cut. The way he wanted the film to be seen. The studio trimmed almost 20 minutes to shorten the runtime to allow more showtimes per day. ($$$)
@@tommc3622No its not. I read Cameron prefer the theatrical Cut. Thats the reason they longer Version is called Special Edition and Not directors cut.
They *definitely* should have kept in the revelation Ripley’s daughter was dead in the theatrical cut because without it, a whole lot of us back then thought Newt’s presence was because there would be a twist that she’d been infected the whole time. Good you didn’t watch the directors cut of Alien. In the dc, Ripley finds Dallas still alive but strung up on a wall impregnated as is shown in Aliens. That cut creates a continuity error in Aliens because should have recognized all the crap on the walls as being caused by the aliens. As for Aliens, I generally recommend watching theatrical cut first because it makes the marines searching the place a lot more ominous. On repeated viewings, the extended version is arguably better. I’m a bit ambivalent though. While the Hadley’s Hope scenes are ok, they still feel unnecessary. I would, however, be down for a movie about the aliens attacking Hadley’s Hope. I’m surprised this hasn’t been made.
@@tommc3622 eh, I'd say the trimming of the 20 minutes makes it a better film and it just so happens to allow it to run a few more times a day. The only part of any importance that was cut out was Ripley finding out about her daughter. The rest that was cut out was fine.
Sigourney Weaver was unknown to everyone outside of theater back in '79 and since Tom Skirritt was given top billing we had no clue that she would end up being the hero. She was just another random member of the crew.
they subverted expectations by using a female as the lead and it felt real where as today it just seems contrived when they do it in almost every movie
The fact that Hicks is asleep shows his experience in combat. Hicks is sleeping now because due to the mission you never know when you might get a chance to sleep again so he is resting while he can.
My entire family, especially my wife, are always irritated and sometimes actively hostile because they resent/envy the fact that no matter the circumstances I can go to sleep on command. It can be midday at a rock concert and if I decide to go to sleep I'll be out in less than 60 seconds. I really think it's a superpower, but one that anyone can learn. My daughter asked me how she could learn to do it as well. I told her it's easy. Just be completely, utterly exhausted to the point of delerium for months on end and allowed only an hour or two of sleep in random snippets that entire time, punctuated by periods of stark raving terror followed by adrenaline crashes so severe she dry heaves, and by the end she will also be able to sleep on command. :)
@@AaronLitz i feel Hicks was sleeping because throughout the movie he stays levelheaded and doesn't panic so I doubt he would pass out from the drop. Furthermore you get the feel all of those Marines excluding Gormen had enough drops that it was routine by now.
I like how in the rolling end credits of Aliens that Newt comes second after Ripley, it sort of adds gravitas and importance to their relationship. Even though Newt appeared much later, and the actor playing her was completely unknown, over shadowed by the many larger-than-life characters throughout the film. I've never noticed that before.
I'm personally partial to *"LETS ROOOOOOOOOOCK!!!"* and "Get Away From Her You *BITCH!"* The lines in themselves aren't that special, but it's all in the delivery, especially the particular inflection on the word *"BITCH!"*
The scene with Bill Paxton (Hudson) at the table, during the knife trick? That was actually real. Lance Hendrickson (Bishop) was supposed to do the trick by himself but the cast decided to prank Paxton by having him participate. So when you see his face grimace in terror, that was actually real. He had no idea he was going to participate until the cast forced his hand onto the table. Then he just went with it. What a great actor and a good sport!
When they did the first chestburster scene in Alien, the rest of the cast didn't know there was gonna be so much blood. They're reactions, especially the one who got squirted in the face, were genuine shock.
And overstaffed. The Nostromo actually had two lifeboats. Each could carry 3. And a crew of 7. Plus Jones. Little details that hold up against the closest of scrutiny. This is how you make movies.
Alien is one of the greatest horror movies of all time and Aliens is one of the greatest action movies of all time. I do not think there has been two movies with the same subject matter that have accomplished this. Amelia does look like Newt as other commenters have also noticed :). Amelia, fantastic reactions, I love how involved you get.
In our desensitized current world, it's important to remember this was the first horror of its kind. I saw this as a teenager the day it opened, and when Ash gave them his sympathies, droves of people got up and left the theatre to either get out of there or watch from the lobby doors, lol. When Ripley was on the shuttle, alone with the Alien, it was the most hopeless feeling ever.
@@longfootbuddy this movie is famous for people vomiting in the theater at the chest burster scene and people walking/running out of the movie horrified when it was first released
you all have no idea. I was 12, and I spent most of the movie with my eyes closed and my fingers in my ears. it was terrifying. but I'll tell you, it ruined me for other movies, because it redefined what "realistic" meant. hadn't been anything this good since 2001: A Space Odessey
Yes, she really was in adrift in that escape pod in hypersleep for 57 years. The way those sleep chambers work is to place the sleeper in a state of suspended animation (kinda like cryostasis), basically a special comatose state in which the subject doesn't age (or does so at such a dramatically reduced rate) and can be safely revived without even having felt the lengthy passage of time. This is why it's employed on those deep space cargo transport missions wherein the transit times are so long and tedious.
They paid close attention to detail on this one. When the salvage team is cutting the door to the escape shuttle, you can still see Ripley's gun that got caught in the door.
In the book for 2010, as they are first going aboard the derelict Discovery, they mention how creepy the dark, cold ship is. One says to the other, "Watch out for the cat." The other says, "Who thought that movie would be good to send on a real spaceship?" Clarke has confirmed it was a reference to Alien.
Sigourney Weaver said : In ALIEN 1 we had no CGI. So when then we were at the dinner table , his acting was so good that we actually thought he was dying. Then we saw the creature pop out & were left in shock ." What you saw in 1 was the Real Reactions😮.
@@guitarman8462 I read that the scene was so intense one actor either broke or strained their arm. I think the actor who got blood splattered was done by her not knowing they were going to throw a bucket of pig blood over her and so her shock reaction was genuine. A lot of interesting stories to read about how the director Ridley Scott made this film.
1:09:04 I love this non-verbal conversation between Ripley and the Queen: Queen: You have no way to escape. Ripley (Blasting the flame thrower and poising it on the egg): If you don't let us out, I'm going to kill all your babies. Queen (To her sentries): Back away, stand down, let her go. Ripley (After seeing the egg open up): Shame on you, we had a deal.
The sound design for them adds so much to their realism. Even knowing what they are made of and how the illusion is being accomplished they STILL look convincing.
I saw Aliens in the theatre when it first came out. That line from Ripley when she came out in the exo-suit.. the whole movie theatre went nuts. Everyone stood up and cheered.
38:55 That child (Carrie Henn) is an American teacher . She is the sister of Christopher Henn, who is also her brother in the film. She is now married and has two children. She had no experience in film before shooting this film. Since then, she has never played in another film or any other audiovisual production. However, she continues to appear in documentaries, television shows or specialized conventions, where she looks back on her only film experience.
While you were watching the first movie, you were dressed like you could have been IN the movie. I love that. Also. Have to add. The most hair-raising line in the second film is when Ripley says the people there to help Newt are soldiers and Newt, with a thousand yard stare, replies. "It won't make any difference." Chills!
There would be no way I'd go back for the ship's cat when an eight-foot acid-drooling alien is after me. It is the best Truckers in Space film made...There is a companion book for Aliens that explains Ripleys missing 57 years.
I'm not generally a fan of "bug hunt" horror movies, but Aliens is such an excellent film on every level. The characters and their development and interactions, the sets, the effects on the xenomorphs (adult, facehugger and eggs, and of course the 'queen'), etc. Amelia was so invested, but she seemed so stressed and anxious through a lot of it that she looked like she needed a hug! A testament to the power of the drama, pace and suspense in this classic movie though.
There's a reason why Bug Hunt movies became so prevalent after this. Both Alien and Aliens would spawn their own entire sub-genre of sci-fi horror and innumerable imitators of varying levels of quality. It cannot be overstated just how influential these two movies were.
Poor crewman (woman) Lambert. She was worried from the moment she learns that they are outside their solar system. Great actor. Her face says it all like she knew it was going to be bad.
She's a space trucker, her job was mostly checking figures on a screen, so when those figures are wrong, that worries her and when faced with an utterly inhuman monster that seems to exist for no reason except to kill everything it comes in contact with, naturally she does the understandably human thing and Freaks the F@CK Out
Ship’s cats are a millennia old tradition, used to catch rats that stow away on ships. A ship as big as the Nostromo has lots of places for rats to hide, so it would need a cat to control their numbers. The alien was probably feeding on rats as it grew to full size.
Good! You’re watching the directors version, it’s one of the few, if only, directors versions I recommend to people instead of the theatrical version. So well done, no major story or character changes, just additions that make it better.
I actually disagree with this. I feel the directors cut should only watched by a fan after they've watched the theatrical cut. The Hadley's Hope scene after the board meeting is an addition that works for fans wanting more, but ruins the surprise of what is happening at the colony and the reason it happened reveal that happens later.
@@celicynd I get it but, I always felt the original crew were only extras in the theatrical version. Never really felt like a Star Trek movie to me with 85% of the movie focused on the love story. Think I remember people saying that’s why it flopped at the box office?
@@celicynd If you get a chance, there’s a making of documentary on the BluRay of the directors cut that’s really good. It explains everything about how the original got taken away from the director and writer before post-production by Paramount executives. For a short documentary it’s pretty fascinating and really informative.
@@D.A.B-w7n flopped at the box office? Are you talking about Aliens? I saw the original when it came out in theaters, and Aliens in theaters as well. The original Alien and Aliens did not flop. Interestingly enough, the absolutely awful Alien 3 also was a box office success. After that, not so much.
Please bear with me, as there are some important points to be made. Many reviewers react the same way about the hearing; thinking all the company people are idiots, and why doesn't anyone listen to Ripley? Well think it through like real life for a moment. You're a manager in a company, and you have an employee that has destroyed a very expensive asset, the rest of the crew is missing, and she has some fantastic story about a monster. 1) There is no evidence of any such creature that she claims was in the shuttle. 2) There have been people on that planet for over 20 years that have never seen such a creature. 3) Nobody has ever seen anything like that creature, even after studying over 300 planets. 4) There is no evidence that the rest of her crew died the way she said they did. 5) Most importantly, you (the manager) did NOT just watch a movie about what happened to this employee 57 years ago! What the hell vas Van Leuwen supposed to think? A person who is quite obviously psychologically impaired claims she blew up her ship because an unknown monster killed her crew. It's far more probable that the crew was alive until she blew up the ship for some personal reason. If it didn't conflict with the plot line, I'd be amazed that she wasn't arrested and confined, and I think Van Leuwen was actually acting irresponsibly as a manager for letting Ripley loose on her own recognizance. How was he to know that she wouldn't have some psychotic episode and find a way to blow up Gateway Station to kill imaginary monsters? And the exact same principle applies to the Marines.They are well trained and they have fought alien life forms before. Why should they blindly follow the words of some civilian that has seen an alien ONE time? And even that is NOT for certain! Until they actually see the face huggers in the colony lab, there is still no proof that Ripley has experienced what she claims, and she may very well be a dangerous nutcase as outlined above. Why did Lt Gorman order them into the nest? Well, that's WHY they are there. That is their JOB, to go in and try to rescue civilians, even at great risk to themselves. Why didn't Lt Gorman explain why they needed to give up their ammo? Because he is the officer. He is in command. He is under no obligation to explain any or all of his orders to anyone. In a combat situation he does not have time to explain his orders to anyone. They are military personnel and they are expected to follow orders. This was not an illegal order to commit a war crime, or obvious reckless negligence that would cause casualties for no purpose. The survival of a unit in combat depends on everyone doing what they are supposed to be doing, which means following the orders of their superiors who are presumed to have a better understanding of "the big picture". Did the face huggers in the colony lab prove that the company had evil intentions? Of course not! We only know that Burke had evil intentions because we are watching a movie. The colonists encountered a dangerous organism. Like Van Leuwen, they have NOT just watched a movie about what happened 57 years ago. They have no idea what these things can turn into. It makes perfect sense to keep specimens for study, so they can find a way to protect themselves from further harm.
@longfootbuddy he never said that the manager didn't believe aliens exist. Just this particular one. One that even the Marines, who have seen many, were skeptical of.
@mikearmstrong8483 Peter Weyland is 100% to blame for the chain of events in both films! By the time of "Aliens" (2179), Weyland-Yutani probably more or less "owns" the Interstellar Commerce Commission, and therefore Van Leuwen is doing what he is told to. He orders a hearing, blames it on Ripley, and buries the whole thing ASAP, because W-Y has (of course) already established the colony Hadley's Hope. When the poor Jordans are sent to "look at a grid reference" (on company orders!) all quickly goes to hell. ICC/W-Y then has no option but to "clean up on isle LV426" and get the USCM to send in a stripped-down/bare-bone MEU. Ripley is allowed to go with them as she is a dispensable HUMINT asset (and a "loose end" for the company). Burke is also sent along, because if he can bring back some Alien specimens and/or DNA, they are - in his own words - "worth millions to the Bio-Weapons Division". What no-one has foreseen is that Ripley 1) eventually gets along with the Marines 2) encounters Newt (who has some good SSE for them) and 3) ends up leading the squad together with Hicks, who follows her tactical suggestions based on her past encounter with the creatures.
Or to sum up, characters in a horror movie don't know they're in a horror movie and can't hear the audience screaming at them about avoiding the horror movie tropes.
@@mikearmstrong8483 My head cannon is that the corporation knew and knows about the aliens. Destroying Ripley’s story is the best way to cover up what happened and to prevent government or other corporations obtaining a sample. I also assume that they were not sure where the aliens were. Once Ripley told her story they then knew where to look and they did not hesitate to send the colonists orders to check it out. The timing is just too ordered to be coincidence: 1) Ripley is found, 2) Ripley tells story, 3) story ‘not believed’ as there is, conveniently, ‘no evidence’ (really?), 4) Communication lost with mining colony, 5) send the marines. The package is just too neat.
All that writing for nothing. The company knew about the alien, hence the message to bring back the specimen even if the crew needs to be sacrificed. So the company either believed the specimen was one of a kind and was destroyed, and\or they are gaslighting Ripley
Legend says that when Cameron had a meeting with the investors to convince them to sponsor a 2nd movie, he didn't say a single word. Instead he went to a drawing board, wrote the word "Alien", added an "S" at the end and drew a vertical line through it forming a $.
Oh wow! It's SO COOL that you could get Carrie Henn (Newt herself) to react to her childhood role in "Aliens." What? That's not Newt? That's Amelia? Well, you have to admit it's an understandable mistake!
Bolaji Badejo, who played the alien, was a Graphic Design student in London. After this movie he moved back to his home country of Lagos and opened an art gallery. Sadly, he died of Sickle Cell Anemia in 1992
The blue haze over the eggs in Alien was actually a stage laser borrowed from a live concert by the rock band The Who being filmed on the soundstage next door at Shepperton Studios. Some of the Alien crew managed to get into the show, told Ridley Scott about the lasers, and he asked if they could borrow one. Some of the film from the concert is up on UA-cam and they're well worth watching, in fact some have become a staple of music-reaction channels. The one with the lasers is a song called Don't Get Fooled Again.
Amelia, this film was so incredibly visual, that I saw it in theatre many times. The big screen experience was the medium for this Ridley Scott masterpiece - IMAX was over the top, both audio and visually. Fun fact - the actors appearing on the platform descending to the surface, and around the "space jockey", are Ridley's children, dressed in smaller costumes. This trick gave the backdrop a much larger appearance. This was the world of practical effects, much more realistic than CGI.
Just a little fun trivia. The Hacksmith Industries Actually made a Real Working Powerloader. Hen Bishop said there was nineteen minutes left, it was very accurate at being close to 16 minutes left.
45:35 So, the Facehugger and the Alien were designed by a man named HR Giger, a Swiss artist known for his disturbing bio-mechanical horror art, frequently incorporating sexual aspects. His aim was to create something that was not ugly, but strangely elegant, but deeply DEEPLY disturbing and yes, he succeeded
Hi, Amelia. This is my first time seeing your reaction. I love it and subscribed to your channel. I am looking forward to seeing your reaction again from Japan . Thank you.
You were quite literally on the edge of your seat throughout the reactions. I've seen each of these movies close to 100 times, and you actually had me nervous by how nervous you were while watching. Great reactions!
NICE!! LOVE THESE MOVIES!! ALIEN changed the horror film genre forever. ALIENS is one of the best Sci-fi Action movies ever made! Robert Altman, Robert Aldrich, Peter Yates, John Boorman, Jack Clayton and Richard Donner were considered for directing. Harrison Ford was going to play Captain Arthur Dallas until Tom Skerritt was picked. Meryl Streep, Katherine Ross, Veronica Cartwright, and Helen Mirren were considered for Ellen Ripley, until Sigourney Weaver was picked to play the character while Cartwright was picked to play Lambert. Jon Finch was hired to play Thomas Kane, but it was revealed to be a diabetic as he fell ill during filming and John Hurt took his place. Jean 'Moebius' Girard, HR Giger and Chris Foss were hired to do the art direction for the movie after the 1975 version of Jodorowsky's DUNE adaptation was cancelled. Some of the original DUNE art concepts were used for the spaceship design and costume design. It won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. I It made $185 million dollars against an $11 million dollar budget.
Alien was great, but it was just one of many great movies in the late 70s. Aliens was universal. Literally everybody knew about it. SW did a screen test with a giant prop gun. She got the part because she kept a straight face.
Great reactions, Amelia! I saw both movies in the theater. The tension was so palpable that during Aliens, I was anxiously sitting on the edge of my seat for most of the film.
I agree with you on camera movement. for me it's not just movement it's primarily having wider shots instead of a bunch of close-ups so you're not just shoved into the actor's faces and you can see all the sets that the crew put so much hard work into making
Both movies are top quality movie horror but especially the 1st because the atmosphere and set-up is beyond creepy. It was so early for such creepy realistic monsters. The suspense, the quiet and even betrayal by the robot science officer. Such a perfect batch of creep-fulness!
I initially thought this was the actress that played Newt all grown up. Of course, I overlooked the obvious, film release year of 1979 that makes it impossible since the actress that played Newt is at young grandmother age range by now.
Disney says people dont like their new stuff because people hate "Strong Female Leads", totally ignoring all the movies like Alien that people liked, because it was well written
If you think that there is no well written movies today then you're too focused on bitching and moaning about things that don't matter rather than focusing on watching movies.
There's a deleted scene where Ripley, while tracking Newt, discovers a cocooned and implanted Burke, who begs Ripley to kill him. She hands Burke a grenade and continues on her way. Soon after she hears the grenade explode. More mercy than he deserved.
I've never seen a double reaction to these two. Reminds me of the 40th anniversary event I went to where they showed the first four films in a row. Well done!
i love how hudson was the techie and super mart but he had a smart mouth too.. and how ripely was understood his intelligence and as a show of great leadership she was able to help him calm down by getting him to focus on the computers looking at blueprints it was a perfect example of why she was second in command of the nostromo. people always discount 2nd in command but real ships crew know how important it is to have a strong 2nd in command cuz if the captain gose down for any reason you need the 2nd to step up and in some case they need to out shine the captain...
19:05 "I wouldn't let that drip onto you. You don't know what that could be. Just because it's dripping doesn't mean it's water." Your mistake here is that YOU don't know what is so you assume he doesn't know either. It's called "projection" when you project YOUR knowledge, assumptions, or behavior onto other people. But he does know exactly what that water is. He is the ship's mechanic. He knows how everything works on this ship - it's his job to know what it is and how to fix it. If he thinks that water is safe to stand in it, then it is.
I'm glad you did the double-feature, Amelia! 👾 Another twofer I hope you'll do is PSYCHO (1960) and PSYCHO II (1983). UA-cam reacters rarely do the sequel... and it adds so much to the lore, develops characters in a creative way. I think you'd very much enjoy them as a set.
The camera movements and shots in Alien (1979) are textbook and exactly what they should be. Technical film history books covering the early years maintain that pretty much every type of shot was tried way back when. The types of shots that work were established long ago and they still work the best, even today.
You gotta remember it's an late 70s movie and all that special effects they want to show off that's why there is long scene of the ships interior and exterior. It also is supposed to build immersion when you are following the crew routine quite closely for long scenes.
45:30 - props to whomever designed the things (facehugger) - his name was H.R. Giger (that's gee-ger as in eager, NOT g-eye-ger as in g-eye-ger counter) - and he's thoroughly messed up - he designed the original alien and a lot of the Alien canon visuals, and he's basically a sociopath/serial-killer that decided to make art instead of actually murdering human beings (good for him, btw) - but yah, check out his art portfolio and you'll start to see a "theme" that will make you eminently grateful that he decided to be an artist instead of murdering people and wearing their skins
38:12 first colony chief on Hadley's Hope, then Captain of the doomed Jupiter Mining Corporation ship "Red Dwarf": this guy has some of the worst luck in sci-fi :D
Awesome reaction to one of the two best two movie stories EVER! The two Alien movies and the two Terminator movies tie for the best for me. Alien, with its insanely good sets and story was a horror movie I enjoyed. The death of John Hurt's character Kane was magnificent in its gruesomeness and the cast's reactions to it. The reactions were so realistic because they intentionally did not tell the cast what the scene was going to involve. 😲 Such a great veteran cast too! Even when Ripley and Jonesy finally get to get into the sleep chambers with the Alien blown out the airlock I still wasn't ready to relax my tension until the credits began rolling. 😀 The follow up is the perfect ending to the Alien saga. As far as I am concerned everything that steals the name after this is just half-assed money grabs cashing in on the Alien/Aliens name. I went to watch Alien3 but hated it so badly from the start that I walked out barely half an hour into the movie. I've never watched anything else from the extended series, and I suggest that other people should never do so either. That's just my opinion though, and it's worth what you paid for it: nothing. In my mind the canon end to this movie was that Hicks fully recovered from his wounds and he and Ripley got married and adopted Newt. Living comfortably off of the huge payout that the company was forced to make, they settled down to focus on being parents and giving Newt the love she needed, and getting it in return. Bishop's memories and personality were put into a new Bishop body and he lived as a butler/valet/friend with his good friends the Hicks family. Michael Biehn as Hicks at least survived this movie, and having him survive was a nice twist on the 'everyone but one person dies' horror movie trope. And the old joke held true: If he doesn't have a mustache he's a good guy. The actress who played Vasquez, the ultimate bad-A marine, Jenette Goldstein, is in three of my top twelve favorite movie series, and sadly she dies in all three. She's still awesome here though. Bill Paxton as Hudson was great. He was scared as crap, but when it was time for action he was right there in the thick of it, doing the best he could, no matter what. And once he was focused he kicked ass: cracking access to the doors on first entry, tapping into the systems to find the schematics of the layout, there with gun blazing to kill the facehugger that was threatening Newt, and scared as he was he was all in for the fighting at the end, dying bravely in combat. The three actors named above, plus Lance Henriksen who played Bishop, were also in the Terminator series. One of my favorite stories about this movie was told by Paul Reiser who played Carter Burke. He took his mother to the premiere and told her nothing about the movie beforehand. She joined in with the rest of the audience applauding when Burke died, and from an article I read he said that for weeks afterward every time they saw each other when she first saw him she got this look of disgust on her face, this "I can't believe you did that to those people" kind of look. That's what made him really believe that he could be an actor. I really like the extended version because it adds a lot of great backstory early on in the movie about Ripley finding out about her daughter, which makes everything about Newt that much more poignant. And I'm a bitter, jaded old man with no heart or emotions to speak of (or so I'm told), but I still get teary eyed when Newt calls Ripley 'Mommy' at the end. In spite of my past work in computers I'm absolutely a practical FX person, because digital FX are overused and rushed to the point of usually being awful. I am always amazed at the eerie but kinda sickly beautiful work that went into the practical FX for these two movies. Not just the aliens themselves, though they are incredible, but all the set dressing, the puppetry/animatronics, makeup and costuming, everything. The queen was basically a super sized puppet, but they did such an amazing job making it look terrifyingly real! The reveal of the queen in the movie was the first time either Sigorney Weaver or Carrie Henn (Ripley and Newt respectively) had seen it, so their stunned reactions are even more real. I have my own Aliens movie story, which I think is amusing: After I graduated high school, I became a junior advisor for the church youth group I had belonged to before graduating. In 1988, when I was 20, we had a lock-in one fall weekend. The high school youth were allowed to pick movies to rent for the lock in. Aliens was one of the ones chosen. I had kind of seen it before, but it was as background while hanging out with friends, so I didn't know much about it. We started watching it around 11 p.m. All of the adults and most of the teens had gone to sleep in the rooms set aside for that, while a few teens and I started watching Aliens in the High School Sunday School room in the large mostly underground downstairs of the large church. The teens all left and went to sleep before we reached the halfway point, but I was interested so I stayed up and finished the movie. It was now around 1 a.m. All the lights were off because everyone but me was asleep. My last task before I could sleep was to go around the unlocked areas of the downstairs and make sure none of the teens had snuck off to do anything they shouldn't have. So here I am, walking through dark cinder block walled hallways with exposed ductwork overhead, and no lights except for the occasional faint red lights of the "Exit" signs. My heart is beating like a jackhammer as I carefully edge my way through the dark halls, knowing that there are no xenomorphs but still expecting some kind of jump scare that's going to make me lash out and crap myself at the same time. Luckily, everyone was fast asleep and I finished my rounds and went and lay down, but it was probably the least restful sleep I had and the most nervous I had ever been in church. 😀
Amelia, you really needed someone there with you just to remind you to breathe. Thought you were going to pass out a few times, glad you made it through ok and loved your reaction. Sending lots of ❤ and hugs your way.
I don't care how many times I've seen Aliens (probably over a hundred by now), the single greatest movie moment ever filmed is the cargo door opening to reveal Ripley in the power loader ready to fight for Newt.
Some people wonder what happened to her brother Timmy. I read the original novel to alien's. Timmy was not very good at hiding, he did not play in the air shaft tunnels. Newt also snuck to see her father in a vent inside the wall because no one was allowed to see him. She saw him die from a chest burster.
People (and cats!) do slowly age while in a hypersleep chamber but only at about 1/10th the normal rate so Ripley (and Jones the cat) would each be about 5.7 years older than the last time we saw them.
Im realy missing a «wrap up» on this chanel… every time, when the movie is over: its only «thank you for watching»… Where is the evaluation afterwords? And all the stuff you ask us to comment on in the comments… where is the folow-up on that?
When Alien came out in 1979 I was working for United Artists Theaters as a manager. My wife and I were living in Pasadena at the time and we had yet to see the movie. We went to a midnight screening of Alien in the old single screen UA theater on Colorado Blvd. All of the showings had sold out and the staff was too small to handle the business. We were ankle deep in trash in the auditorium but no one really cared. We were sitting next to another couple on my left. Both my wife and the lady next to me each gripped one of my arms for most of the movie. She didn't even introduce herself afterward.
1:09:33 - this is, without a doubt, my favorite moment in Aliens - it's the "FUCK YOU" moment - when the egg crosses the line that has been otherwise negotiated between the queen and ripley, and now all bets are off and EVERYTHING DIES IN FIRE!!!!...haha lolol...
18:40 "Why are they smoking in space?" It was 1979. Half the country smoked. In restaurants, in airplanes, everywhere. Smoking was not banned on planes until 1990 and not in restaurants until 1995 (California was first, other states took even longer). Back in 1964 the Surgeon General declared smoking as unhealthy. Before that, it was actually thought, by doctors, to be a good way to relax. I heard that in the 50s-60s some companies refused to hire non-smokers; they wanted relaxed employees that smoked to reduce stress. (this is hard to verify because every search I do turns up modern arguments about discriminating against smokers) Those bosses didn't just turn off their belief systems or hiring practices in 1964 because of a Surgeon General warning. Regarding the movie, filmed in a time and by people who probably smoked, or sat in restaurants and airplanes full of smoke, this didn't seem too strange. As for the air quality on the ship, the smoking isn't the problem. Breathing is the problem. Every time a human exhales, they put CO2 into the air. The next time a human inhales, they get a little of that CO2 mixed in with their air. More breathing, more CO2, less air, and eventually they breathe so much CO2 and not enough air and they all die. It's why people suffocate in mineshaft collapses, or even putting a bag over their own head. To solve this problem, NASA uses air "scrubbers", filters that clean the air, removing the CO2 and replacing it with new fresh air from storage tanks. I'm sure the Nostromo does the same thing to keep the crew alive. Using those same scrubbers to take a little smoke out of the air would be super easy. They just need to change the filters a little more often. So for the small cost of a few extra air filters, the company can have a relaxed, stress-free crew AND they can sell the cigarettes to the crew to offset the cost, maybe even turn a profit. Is it unhealthy? Yeah, but the company doesn't care, and neither do the smokers on the crew, just like the smokers here on Earth don't care too much about their own health.
There is a small shot in the elevator, when she is done arming herself and there is a moment when you can see her fear and doubt, then she takes a deep breath, shakes her head and puts herself together. Fear to determination, doubt to focus, I'm here not for myself but for her. Sigourney, writers and director crafted perfect thriller action movie character. This movie is 40 years old and very few woman characters come close in that genre.
Those who saw both movies in theatres when they came out know that even if Alien was a masterpiece, Aliens is a totally different beast. Because even if it's on par with Alien, the sequel changed videogames and cinema forever. For years (maybe a decade) there were countless videogames like Doom where you were basically a marine in space. Also the movies were much more action oriented than before. Cameron has changed the entertainment world more than once in his career
This was Sigourney Weaver's first acting gig. The original ending ideas had the Alien die when the ship exploded. When they added the fourth act with a direct conflict with the Alien, the original ending had the Alien bite off Ripley's head and deliver the final monologue. Studio executives vetoed that ending hard, told Ridley Scott to refilm it with Sigourney Weaver's character surviving. Also little known fact: Roger Corman was the original producer before Fox swooped in. James Cameron ghost directed a B-Movie rip off of Alien for Roger Corman. James Cameron would take what he learned from filming Galaxy of Terror (1981) and go on to film the official sequel. So if you want to see a B-Movie monster schlock version of Alien that bridges some gaps between Alien and Aliens, watch Galaxy of Terror. James Cameron built the giant Maggot prop in Galaxy of Terror, and replaced a steel frame with a titanium frame for the Alien Queen. Other fun fact that is more subtext in the final cuts, but more expressed in early work cuts and the early scripts: Ripley and Dallas were intimate. Ripley gets action in every movie. She's the James Bond of final girls.
When crews in this film universe go on deep space missions, they use hypersleep pods to put them into suspended animation. That way, they aren't using up as much food, water and oxygen for the long space voyages. When Ripley was found, she and her cat, Jonesy, were in those pods for 57 years, but they did not physically age (very much) during that time
Lol Amelia -looks- like an older version of Newt
“that child looks so familiar”
hmm. lol
So cute.
Or Annette Benning's granddaughter.
Totally. I thought it was just me that thought that.
Yes, she is totally Newt. "They mostly come at night, mostly"
Jones the cat.
OG survivor of the Alien franchise.
He lived out a full happy life on Gateway Station.
he ain't got nothing on creme puff ..
Two of the best movies EVER. I have to shake my head when people say men don't like movies with a strong, female lead. A lot of us watched "Alien" and "Aliens" (and "Terminator" and "Terminator 2") DOZENS of times as kids and young adults, and no one EVER complained that Ripley was the lead and carried the show. We like well-crafted movies, regardless of whether the lead is male or female. Sigourney Weaver was PERFECT for the role, and the added character nuance in "Aliens" was really well done.
I always feel bad that everyone hates on Hudson. Among Bill Paxton's (RIP) many talents was the ability to convincingly portray REALLY obnoxious characters... but even as annoying as he was at points, Hudson went out like a HERO.
@@jimclayson and terminator
Truth. Absolute truth right there.
Absolutely agree about the strong female lead. Story is always most important. Loved Sigourney in these movies.
"You gotta get busy living? Or get bust dieing....
I was disappointed discover that Sigourney Weaver is a woke gun grabber. Ripley is way cooler than the actress.
The ping of the motion detector might be the most anxiety-inducing sound in movie history. It's just a simple little thing, but so effective.
It may only be a little dot on a screen, but it's an eight-foot, exoskeletal dot with acid blood, THE WORST KIND OF DOT!!!
@@Dystopia1111 Also, Veronica Cartwright's performance is under appreciated
It Sounds Like a Heart Beat.
I used to have a real cool app on my phone that was an accurate recreation of the Aliens motion sensor.
Especially after playing the earlier Alien v Predator games....
She might look familiar, but Carrie Henn who played Newt didn't do any other films after Aliens. She only did this one iconic role and later on she became a school teacher.
@@faisalmemon285 James Cameron gave her PTSD?? naaa surely not
@@faisalmemon285 huh ok will do mate
@@mattreaction that was another actor Lisa Stephens (Connaly)
I'm so fking tired of people spamming this factoid on every aliens video.
@@mattreaction hey guys, this was the kids only acting role, wow can you believe it? Also she became a teacher, just in case you didn't already see this comment the other 40,000 times people posted it.
Along with Terminator one and two, I think Alien and Aliens is the greatest sci-fi duology ever made.
If you feel that way I highly suggest checking out Romulus! Update its status to trio :) great username btw! lol
Predator 1 and 2?
Cameron's made the two best sequels ever, regardless of genre, imo.. yea yea... godfather II, but I prefer goodfellas over both GF movies as it's based on a true story, not a novel and has far superior acting (outside of pacino).. at least imo
@@lenini056 Nah Predator 1, Predator 2, and Prey make a nice trilogy.
Romulus had a lot of potential but the 3rd act really fell apart. Still it was a good effort.
In Aliens, Paul Rizer took his mom to the premier. When Burke is taken down by the Alien, he said his mother clapped louder than the rest of the audience.
There's always one a-hole who has to post this boring line.
😂😂😂
Turns out it was his Sister 😊
@@phillipdry3696 That's cool too. Everything I've read, it was the mother. Thanks for the update 🙂
It is crazy to be the Mad about You husband AND the bad guy in Aliens!
I still love Hudsons line when the Aliens turn the power off. "THEY cut the power?! What do you mean THEY cut the power man! THEY'RE ANIMALS!"
bill Paxton is a legend every single one of his characters he put his own flare on the character
@@VenomKpp LOL yep. Great line. One of the biggest mistakes that they made was underestimating the intelligence of the xenomorphs!
I'm so glad you watched the extended version of Aliens. The background info about Ripley outliving her daughter added a lot to the story, and made Newt's cry of "Mommy!" at the end all the more endearing . . .
It's not really an "extended" version.
It's Cameron's final cut.
The way he wanted the film to be seen.
The studio trimmed almost 20 minutes to shorten the runtime to allow more showtimes per day.
($$$)
@@tommc3622 What's in a name? LOL, Shakespeare aside, I'm glad she watched the version with the part about Ripley's daughter . . .
@@tommc3622No its not. I read Cameron prefer the theatrical Cut. Thats the reason they longer Version is called Special Edition and Not directors cut.
They *definitely* should have kept in the revelation Ripley’s daughter was dead in the theatrical cut because without it, a whole lot of us back then thought Newt’s presence was because there would be a twist that she’d been infected the whole time.
Good you didn’t watch the directors cut of Alien. In the dc, Ripley finds Dallas still alive but strung up on a wall impregnated as is shown in Aliens. That cut creates a continuity error in Aliens because should have recognized all the crap on the walls as being caused by the aliens.
As for Aliens, I generally recommend watching theatrical cut first because it makes the marines searching the place a lot more ominous. On repeated viewings, the extended version is arguably better.
I’m a bit ambivalent though. While the Hadley’s Hope scenes are ok, they still feel unnecessary.
I would, however, be down for a movie about the aliens attacking Hadley’s Hope. I’m surprised this hasn’t been made.
@@tommc3622 eh, I'd say the trimming of the 20 minutes makes it a better film and it just so happens to allow it to run a few more times a day. The only part of any importance that was cut out was Ripley finding out about her daughter. The rest that was cut out was fine.
Sigourney Weaver was unknown to everyone outside of theater back in '79 and since Tom Skirritt was given top billing we had no clue that she would end up being the hero. She was just another random member of the crew.
they subverted expectations by using a female as the lead and it felt real where as today it just seems contrived when they do it in almost every movie
The fact that Hicks is asleep shows his experience in combat. Hicks is sleeping now because due to the mission you never know when you might get a chance to sleep again so he is resting while he can.
I did that as a conscript in Sweden! Could sleep everywhere and anytime.
My entire family, especially my wife, are always irritated and sometimes actively hostile because they resent/envy the fact that no matter the circumstances I can go to sleep on command. It can be midday at a rock concert and if I decide to go to sleep I'll be out in less than 60 seconds. I really think it's a superpower, but one that anyone can learn.
My daughter asked me how she could learn to do it as well. I told her it's easy. Just be completely, utterly exhausted to the point of delerium for months on end and allowed only an hour or two of sleep in random snippets that entire time, punctuated by periods of stark raving terror followed by adrenaline crashes so severe she dry heaves, and by the end she will also be able to sleep on command. :)
I _still_ don't know if Hicks fell asleep, or passed the Hell out. I could imagine him doing either.
@@AaronLitz i feel Hicks was sleeping because throughout the movie he stays levelheaded and doesn't panic so I doubt he would pass out from the drop. Furthermore you get the feel all of those Marines excluding Gormen had enough drops that it was routine by now.
I like how in the rolling end credits of Aliens that Newt comes second after Ripley, it sort of adds gravitas and importance to their relationship. Even though Newt appeared much later, and the actor playing her was completely unknown, over shadowed by the many larger-than-life characters throughout the film.
I've never noticed that before.
My favorite line in ALIENS is "What are we supposed to use?? Harsh language??". 😂🤣😂🤣
I'm personally partial to *"LETS ROOOOOOOOOOCK!!!"* and "Get Away From Her You *BITCH!"* The lines in themselves aren't that special, but it's all in the delivery, especially the particular inflection on the word *"BITCH!"*
"Did you ever get mistaken for a man?" "No. Did you?"
@@BenjWarrant The movie is just so full of memeable lines
The top ten greatest lines in cinematic history were delivered by Bill Paxton in 1986.
"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." One of the best lines in any movie ever.
They didn't make Newt carry anything. She was being a kid, making herself apart of the job. That screen went off because Burke turned it off.
The scene with Bill Paxton (Hudson) at the table, during the knife trick? That was actually real. Lance Hendrickson (Bishop) was supposed to do the trick by himself but the cast decided to prank Paxton by having him participate. So when you see his face grimace in terror, that was actually real. He had no idea he was going to participate until the cast forced his hand onto the table. Then he just went with it. What a great actor and a good sport!
RIP Bill Paxton 😕
Paxton also got part of his Pinky Finger chopped off during the filming of the knife scene
When they did the first chestburster scene in Alien, the rest of the cast didn't know there was gonna be so much blood. They're reactions, especially the one who got squirted in the face, were genuine shock.
I love that it is not a slick, clean white spaceship. It also needs repairs to keep it going.
@@longfootbuddy Lets be fair, that was the freaky supercomputer room, it gets to be the exception.
And overstaffed.
The Nostromo actually had two lifeboats. Each could carry 3.
And a crew of 7. Plus Jones.
Little details that hold up against the closest of scrutiny.
This is how you make movies.
AMOGUS
Built by the lowest bidder
Alien is one of the greatest horror movies of all time and Aliens is one of the greatest action movies of all time. I do not think there has been two movies with the same subject matter that have accomplished this. Amelia does look like Newt as other commenters have also noticed :). Amelia, fantastic reactions, I love how involved you get.
In our desensitized current world, it's important to remember this was the first horror of its kind. I saw this as a teenager the day it opened, and when Ash gave them his sympathies, droves of people got up and left the theatre to either get out of there or watch from the lobby doors, lol. When Ripley was on the shuttle, alone with the Alien, it was the most hopeless feeling ever.
@@longfootbuddy this movie is famous for people vomiting in the theater at the chest burster scene and people walking/running out of the movie horrified when it was first released
I think it's quite tame
Did they stay after the chest burster scene and leave after Ash final scene?
weaklings, i was 8, watched it, slept like a baby
you all have no idea. I was 12, and I spent most of the movie with my eyes closed and my fingers in my ears. it was terrifying. but I'll tell you, it ruined me for other movies, because it redefined what "realistic" meant.
hadn't been anything this good since 2001: A Space Odessey
Yes, she really was in adrift in that escape pod in hypersleep for 57 years. The way those sleep chambers work is to place the sleeper in a state of suspended animation (kinda like cryostasis), basically a special comatose state in which the subject doesn't age (or does so at such a dramatically reduced rate) and can be safely revived without even having felt the lengthy passage of time. This is why it's employed on those deep space cargo transport missions wherein the transit times are so long and tedious.
It also saves weight, and I'm sure money, in the form of consumables.
They paid close attention to detail on this one. When the salvage team is cutting the door to the escape shuttle, you can still see Ripley's gun that got caught in the door.
@@ChrisReise
I've seen this umpteen million + 3 times, and I never noticed that.
I did not know that.. now I'll have to go watch it again. Thanks!
In the book for 2010, as they are first going aboard the derelict Discovery, they mention how creepy the dark, cold ship is.
One says to the other, "Watch out for the cat." The other says, "Who thought that movie would be good to send on a real spaceship?"
Clarke has confirmed it was a reference to Alien.
Sigourney Weaver said : In ALIEN 1 we had no CGI. So when then we were at the dinner table , his acting was so good that we actually thought he was dying. Then we saw the creature pop out & were left in shock ." What you saw in 1 was the Real Reactions😮.
@@guitarman8462 really? Damn he is amazing, so those are genuine reactions.
@ajstyles5704 there was many cameras pointing at each actor to get the real reaction 😳.
@@guitarman8462 I read that the scene was so intense one actor either broke or strained their arm. I think the actor who got blood splattered was done by her not knowing they were going to throw a bucket of pig blood over her and so her shock reaction was genuine. A lot of interesting stories to read about how the director Ridley Scott made this film.
They knew something was up since everybody wore leather aprens.
They did not know the scale though.
@@danielengler7747 It got in her mouth too.
45 years now and it's STILL one of the most frightening movies ever!!! Unbelievable!
This is probably because we perceive something like an alien as something potentially more real than some fantasy creatures.
1:09:04 I love this non-verbal conversation between Ripley and the Queen:
Queen: You have no way to escape.
Ripley (Blasting the flame thrower and poising it on the egg): If you don't let us out, I'm going to kill all your babies.
Queen (To her sentries): Back away, stand down, let her go.
Ripley (After seeing the egg open up): Shame on you, we had a deal.
@@ChrisReise or, more likely, the queen has no control over the instinctive reaction of her eggs, and she thought: "Ah damn."
The loaders in Aliens were so convincing, businesses wanted to buy them. They’re actually a suit built around a stuntman.
The sound design for them adds so much to their realism. Even knowing what they are made of and how the illusion is being accomplished they STILL look convincing.
I saw Aliens in the theatre when it first came out. That line from Ripley when she came out in the exo-suit.. the whole movie theatre went nuts. Everyone stood up and cheered.
38:55 That child (Carrie Henn) is an American teacher . She is the sister of Christopher Henn, who is also her brother in the film. She is now married and has two children. She had no experience in film before shooting this film. Since then, she has never played in another film or any other audiovisual production. However, she continues to appear in documentaries, television shows or specialized conventions, where she looks back on her only film experience.
@@longfootbuddy lol
I've only ever watched Amelia watching comedies. I had no idea there'd be so much wide-eyed breath holding and hand wringing! Wonderful lol
Such an expressive face. it was a joy taking this emotional ride with you.
While you were watching the first movie, you were dressed like you could have been IN the movie. I love that.
Also. Have to add. The most hair-raising line in the second film is when Ripley says the people there to help Newt are soldiers and Newt, with a thousand yard stare, replies. "It won't make any difference." Chills!
Two Classic Movies for Different Reasons, one is a Slow Build up to Critical Mass and the Other is Kinetic Energy for the Win, Awesome Movies
There would be no way I'd go back for the ship's cat when an eight-foot acid-drooling alien is after me. It is the best Truckers in Space film made...There is a companion book for Aliens that explains Ripleys missing 57 years.
I'm not generally a fan of "bug hunt" horror movies, but Aliens is such an excellent film on every level. The characters and their development and interactions, the sets, the effects on the xenomorphs (adult, facehugger and eggs, and of course the 'queen'), etc.
Amelia was so invested, but she seemed so stressed and anxious through a lot of it that she looked like she needed a hug! A testament to the power of the drama, pace and suspense in this classic movie though.
There's a reason why Bug Hunt movies became so prevalent after this. Both Alien and Aliens would spawn their own entire sub-genre of sci-fi horror and innumerable imitators of varying levels of quality. It cannot be overstated just how influential these two movies were.
Aliens literally invented the current "bug hunt" style movie. All the others are imitations lacking the depth.
I'm glad you're watching ALIENS: SPECIAL EDITION or THE DIRECTOR'S CUT, depends on how you pronounce the movie title.
In the old days ships used to have cats on board to deal with mice problems. Cold be in that vain.
Yes, Jonesy is a mouser😺
Either she's the best actress in the world, or she's really captured what it feels like to see Alien for the first time
Poor crewman (woman) Lambert. She was worried from the moment she learns that they are outside their solar system. Great actor. Her face says it all like she knew it was going to be bad.
She's a space trucker, her job was mostly checking figures on a screen, so when those figures are wrong, that worries her and when faced with an utterly inhuman monster that seems to exist for no reason except to kill everything it comes in contact with, naturally she does the understandably human thing and Freaks the F@CK Out
Ship’s cats are a millennia old tradition, used to catch rats that stow away on ships. A ship as big as the Nostromo has lots of places for rats to hide, so it would need a cat to control their numbers. The alien was probably feeding on rats as it grew to full size.
This is best Iconic role for Sigourney Weaver.
You've obviously not seen Galaxy Quest..........................😜
Imagine being 10 yrs old, defying your parents and sneaking downstairs late at night to watch it........
Good! You’re watching the directors version, it’s one of the few, if only, directors versions I recommend to people instead of the theatrical version. So well done, no major story or character changes, just additions that make it better.
I actually disagree with this. I feel the directors cut should only watched by a fan after they've watched the theatrical cut. The Hadley's Hope scene after the board meeting is an addition that works for fans wanting more, but ruins the surprise of what is happening at the colony and the reason it happened reveal that happens later.
@@celicynd I get it but, I always felt the original crew were only extras in the theatrical version. Never really felt like a Star Trek movie to me with 85% of the movie focused on the love story. Think I remember people saying that’s why it flopped at the box office?
@@celicynd If you get a chance, there’s a making of documentary on the BluRay of the directors cut that’s really good. It explains everything about how the original got taken away from the director and writer before post-production by Paramount executives. For a short documentary it’s pretty fascinating and really informative.
@@D.A.B-w7n I hope Aliens wouldn't feel like a Star Trek movie...
@@D.A.B-w7n flopped at the box office? Are you talking about Aliens? I saw the original when it came out in theaters, and Aliens in theaters as well. The original Alien and Aliens did not flop. Interestingly enough, the absolutely awful Alien 3 also was a box office success. After that, not so much.
"I love sleeping in confined spaces"
My immediate thought - Amelia climbs into a coffin each night! She's just a cute vampire.
Darn! You’ve figured me out 🧛🏻♀️
She is a cute vampire 🦇 Better watch your neck though!😸
Please bear with me, as there are some important points to be made.
Many reviewers react the same way about the hearing; thinking all the company people are idiots, and why doesn't anyone listen to Ripley?
Well think it through like real life for a moment.
You're a manager in a company, and you have an employee that has destroyed a very expensive asset, the rest of the crew is missing, and she has some fantastic story about a monster.
1) There is no evidence of any such creature that she claims was in the shuttle.
2) There have been people on that planet for over 20 years that have never seen such a creature.
3) Nobody has ever seen anything like that creature, even after studying over 300 planets.
4) There is no evidence that the rest of her crew died the way she said they did.
5) Most importantly, you (the manager) did NOT just watch a movie about what happened to this employee 57 years ago!
What the hell vas Van Leuwen supposed to think? A person who is quite obviously psychologically impaired claims she blew up her ship because an unknown monster killed her crew. It's far more probable that the crew was alive until she blew up the ship for some personal reason. If it didn't conflict with the plot line, I'd be amazed that she wasn't arrested and confined, and I think Van Leuwen was actually acting irresponsibly as a manager for letting Ripley loose on her own recognizance. How was he to know that she wouldn't have some psychotic episode and find a way to blow up Gateway Station to kill imaginary monsters?
And the exact same principle applies to the Marines.They are well trained and they have fought alien life forms before. Why should they blindly follow the words of some civilian that has seen an alien ONE time? And even that is NOT for certain! Until they actually see the face huggers in the colony lab, there is still no proof that Ripley has experienced what she claims, and she may very well be a dangerous nutcase as outlined above.
Why did Lt Gorman order them into the nest? Well, that's WHY they are there. That is their JOB, to go in and try to rescue civilians, even at great risk to themselves.
Why didn't Lt Gorman explain why they needed to give up their ammo? Because he is the officer. He is in command. He is under no obligation to explain any or all of his orders to anyone. In a combat situation he does not have time to explain his orders to anyone. They are military personnel and they are expected to follow orders. This was not an illegal order to commit a war crime, or obvious reckless negligence that would cause casualties for no purpose. The survival of a unit in combat depends on everyone doing what they are supposed to be doing, which means following the orders of their superiors who are presumed to have a better understanding of "the big picture".
Did the face huggers in the colony lab prove that the company had evil intentions? Of course not! We only know that Burke had evil intentions because we are watching a movie. The colonists encountered a dangerous organism. Like Van Leuwen, they have NOT just watched a movie about what happened 57 years ago. They have no idea what these things can turn into. It makes perfect sense to keep specimens for study, so they can find a way to protect themselves from further harm.
@longfootbuddy he never said that the manager didn't believe aliens exist. Just this particular one. One that even the Marines, who have seen many, were skeptical of.
@mikearmstrong8483 Peter Weyland is 100% to blame for the chain of events in both films! By the time of "Aliens" (2179), Weyland-Yutani probably more or less "owns" the Interstellar Commerce Commission, and therefore Van Leuwen is doing what he is told to. He orders a hearing, blames it on Ripley, and buries the whole thing ASAP, because W-Y has (of course) already established the colony Hadley's Hope. When the poor Jordans are sent to "look at a grid reference" (on company orders!) all quickly goes to hell. ICC/W-Y then has no option but to "clean up on isle LV426" and get the USCM to send in a stripped-down/bare-bone MEU. Ripley is allowed to go with them as she is a dispensable HUMINT asset (and a "loose end" for the company). Burke is also sent along, because if he can bring back some Alien specimens and/or DNA, they are - in his own words - "worth millions to the Bio-Weapons Division". What no-one has foreseen is that Ripley 1) eventually gets along with the Marines 2) encounters Newt (who has some good SSE for them) and 3) ends up leading the squad together with Hicks, who follows her tactical suggestions based on her past encounter with the creatures.
Or to sum up, characters in a horror movie don't know they're in a horror movie and can't hear the audience screaming at them about avoiding the horror movie tropes.
@@mikearmstrong8483 My head cannon is that the corporation knew and knows about the aliens. Destroying Ripley’s story is the best way to cover up what happened and to prevent government or other corporations obtaining a sample. I also assume that they were not sure where the aliens were. Once Ripley told her story they then knew where to look and they did not hesitate to send the colonists orders to check it out. The timing is just too ordered to be coincidence: 1) Ripley is found, 2) Ripley tells story, 3) story ‘not believed’ as there is, conveniently, ‘no evidence’ (really?), 4) Communication lost with mining colony, 5) send the marines. The package is just too neat.
All that writing for nothing. The company knew about the alien, hence the message to bring back the specimen even if the crew needs to be sacrificed. So the company either believed the specimen was one of a kind and was destroyed, and\or they are gaslighting Ripley
Nope. No camera people go “No!”. This is natural because it’s a real set and not CGI. Real sets reign supreme. So much more realistic.
I figured! I like it too, it plays so much better, but people are always going to have their opinions haha
Legend says that when Cameron had a meeting with the investors to convince them to sponsor a 2nd movie, he didn't say a single word. Instead he went to a drawing board, wrote the word "Alien", added an "S" at the end and drew a vertical line through it forming a $.
My dumbass director brain talking to myself....A'lien money? The fuck.'
Oh wow! It's SO COOL that you could get Carrie Henn (Newt herself) to react to her childhood role in "Aliens." What? That's not Newt? That's Amelia? Well, you have to admit it's an understandable mistake!
Was hoping she was the face hugger
Queen takes Bishop! 😭
Good one! Greetings from Croatia, from a movie collector for a 37 years (I'm 56). I've seen Aliens for at least 150 times...
Points.
@@nkfd4688 Every single time I watch Aliens, I say the same exact thing when the Queen skewers Bishop.
Bolaji Badejo, who played the alien, was a Graphic Design student in London. After this movie he moved back to his home country of Lagos and opened an art gallery. Sadly, he died of Sickle Cell Anemia in 1992
The blue haze over the eggs in Alien was actually a stage laser borrowed from a live concert by the rock band The Who being filmed on the soundstage next door at Shepperton Studios. Some of the Alien crew managed to get into the show, told Ridley Scott about the lasers, and he asked if they could borrow one. Some of the film from the concert is up on UA-cam and they're well worth watching, in fact some have become a staple of music-reaction channels. The one with the lasers is a song called Don't Get Fooled Again.
Amelia, this film was so incredibly visual, that I saw it in theatre many times. The big screen experience was the medium for this Ridley Scott masterpiece - IMAX was over the top, both audio and visually. Fun fact - the actors appearing on the platform descending to the surface, and around the "space jockey", are Ridley's children, dressed in smaller costumes. This trick gave the backdrop a much larger appearance. This was the world of practical effects, much more realistic than CGI.
Just a little fun trivia. The Hacksmith Industries Actually made a Real Working Powerloader. Hen Bishop said there was nineteen minutes left, it was very accurate at being close to 16 minutes left.
45:35 So, the Facehugger and the Alien were designed by a man named HR Giger, a Swiss artist known for his disturbing bio-mechanical horror art, frequently incorporating sexual aspects. His aim was to create something that was not ugly, but strangely elegant, but deeply DEEPLY disturbing and yes, he succeeded
can't believe the Special Edition won the poll. The pacing in the Theatrical, as well as the unknowns, make it the much better version
Hi, Amelia. This is my first time seeing your reaction. I love it and subscribed to your channel. I am looking forward to seeing your reaction again from Japan . Thank you.
I'm So 💯Happy you did a double feature !
Alien is iconic
Aliens is timeless
Ripley is Legend 🙌
Great React!
stay Awesome ⭐️
You were quite literally on the edge of your seat throughout the reactions. I've seen each of these movies close to 100 times, and you actually had me nervous by how nervous you were while watching. Great reactions!
NICE!!
LOVE THESE MOVIES!!
ALIEN changed the horror film genre forever.
ALIENS is one of the best Sci-fi Action movies ever made!
Robert Altman, Robert Aldrich, Peter Yates, John Boorman, Jack Clayton and Richard Donner were considered for directing.
Harrison Ford was going to play Captain Arthur Dallas until Tom Skerritt was picked.
Meryl Streep, Katherine Ross, Veronica Cartwright, and Helen Mirren were considered for Ellen Ripley, until Sigourney Weaver was picked to play the character while Cartwright was picked to play Lambert.
Jon Finch was hired to play Thomas Kane, but it was revealed to be a diabetic as he fell ill during filming and John Hurt took his place.
Jean 'Moebius' Girard, HR Giger and Chris Foss were hired to do the art direction for the movie after the 1975 version of Jodorowsky's DUNE adaptation was cancelled. Some of the original DUNE art concepts were used for the spaceship design and costume design.
It won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
I
It made $185 million dollars against an $11 million dollar budget.
Alien was great, but it was just one of many great movies in the late 70s.
Aliens was universal. Literally everybody knew about it.
SW did a screen test with a giant prop gun. She got the part because she kept a straight face.
Alien was about suspense. Aliens was about action.
@@sanddab yeah, basic haunted house formula
@@PeacefulRallyCar-pw3cs Monster in a box. But it was groundbreaking for sure.
Great reactions, Amelia!
I saw both movies in the theater. The tension was so palpable that during Aliens, I was anxiously sitting on the edge of my seat for most of the film.
This is the best Aliens reaction I've seen so far (and I've watched some). Amelia, you rock!
I agree with you on camera movement. for me it's not just movement it's primarily having wider shots instead of a bunch of close-ups so you're not just shoved into the actor's faces and you can see all the sets that the crew put so much hard work into making
THE QUEEN !!!! 🥚 🥚 🥚 🥚 🥚 😱. When I was a kid , I had large Alien Xenomorph in the 70's and the eggs opened & closed , plus all the crew.
Another awesome reaction Amelia, your the reason I watch Popcorn Roulette, thanks for being awesome.
Both movies are top quality movie horror but especially the 1st because the atmosphere and set-up is beyond creepy. It was so early for such creepy realistic monsters. The suspense, the quiet and even betrayal by the robot science officer. Such a perfect batch of creep-fulness!
lol She was breathing heavy throughout all of Aliens with wide eyes XD
Enjoy this ending never watch Alien 3.
We think Amelia looks enough like Newt that we might make a short fan film that tells the real story of what happened to her.
I initially thought this was the actress that played Newt all grown up. Of course, I overlooked the obvious, film release year of 1979 that makes it impossible since the actress that played Newt is at young grandmother age range by now.
Disney says people dont like their new stuff because people hate "Strong Female Leads", totally ignoring all the movies like Alien that people liked, because it was well written
"I mean, how many strong female leads have there been? None!"
If you think that there is no well written movies today then you're too focused on bitching and moaning about things that don't matter rather than focusing on watching movies.
Princess Leia, Laurie Strode, Sarah Connor. I grew up with strong female leads.
@@Mecha82 either you are trolling or you didnt understand the original post
Ripley's character was originally written as a man.
There's a deleted scene where Ripley, while tracking Newt, discovers a cocooned and implanted Burke, who begs Ripley to kill him. She hands Burke a grenade and continues on her way. Soon after she hears the grenade explode. More mercy than he deserved.
I've never seen a double reaction to these two. Reminds me of the 40th anniversary event I went to where they showed the first four films in a row.
Well done!
i love how hudson was the techie and super mart but he had a smart mouth too.. and how ripely was understood his intelligence and as a show of great leadership she was able to help him calm down by getting him to focus on the computers looking at blueprints it was a perfect example of why she was second in command of the nostromo. people always discount 2nd in command but real ships crew know how important it is to have a strong 2nd in command cuz if the captain gose down for any reason you need the 2nd to step up and in some case they need to out shine the captain...
19:05 "I wouldn't let that drip onto you. You don't know what that could be. Just because it's dripping doesn't mean it's water."
Your mistake here is that YOU don't know what is so you assume he doesn't know either. It's called "projection" when you project YOUR knowledge, assumptions, or behavior onto other people.
But he does know exactly what that water is.
He is the ship's mechanic.
He knows how everything works on this ship - it's his job to know what it is and how to fix it.
If he thinks that water is safe to stand in it, then it is.
The theatrical release of Aliens is much tighter. The scenes with the sentry guns are the only ones that should have been added imo.
Yep !
I'm glad you did the double-feature, Amelia! 👾 Another twofer I hope you'll do is PSYCHO (1960) and PSYCHO II (1983). UA-cam reacters rarely do the sequel... and it adds so much to the lore, develops characters in a creative way. I think you'd very much enjoy them as a set.
I don’t know how many times I watched Psycho 2 when it was on HBO in the 80’s. Great movie!
@@toddhensley880 I agree, Todd! Thanks so much for echoing my sentiments. 🫂
The camera movements and shots in Alien (1979) are textbook and exactly what they should be. Technical film history books covering the early years maintain that pretty much every type of shot was tried way back when. The types of shots that work were established long ago and they still work the best, even today.
You gotta remember it's an late 70s movie and all that special effects they want to show off that's why there is long scene of the ships interior and exterior. It also is supposed to build immersion when you are following the crew routine quite closely for long scenes.
Aliens: The biggest blockbuster of 1986. And 38 years later it's still great :)
45:30 - props to whomever designed the things (facehugger) - his name was H.R. Giger (that's gee-ger as in eager, NOT g-eye-ger as in g-eye-ger counter) - and he's thoroughly messed up - he designed the original alien and a lot of the Alien canon visuals, and he's basically a sociopath/serial-killer that decided to make art instead of actually murdering human beings (good for him, btw) - but yah, check out his art portfolio and you'll start to see a "theme" that will make you eminently grateful that he decided to be an artist instead of murdering people and wearing their skins
38:12 first colony chief on Hadley's Hope, then Captain of the doomed Jupiter Mining Corporation ship "Red Dwarf": this guy has some of the worst luck in sci-fi :D
Awesome reaction to one of the two best two movie stories EVER! The two Alien movies and the two Terminator movies tie for the best for me.
Alien, with its insanely good sets and story was a horror movie I enjoyed. The death of John Hurt's character Kane was magnificent in its gruesomeness and the cast's reactions to it. The reactions were so realistic because they intentionally did not tell the cast what the scene was going to involve. 😲 Such a great veteran cast too!
Even when Ripley and Jonesy finally get to get into the sleep chambers with the Alien blown out the airlock I still wasn't ready to relax my tension until the credits began rolling. 😀
The follow up is the perfect ending to the Alien saga. As far as I am concerned everything that steals the name after this is just half-assed money grabs cashing in on the Alien/Aliens name. I went to watch Alien3 but hated it so badly from the start that I walked out barely half an hour into the movie. I've never watched anything else from the extended series, and I suggest that other people should never do so either. That's just my opinion though, and it's worth what you paid for it: nothing.
In my mind the canon end to this movie was that Hicks fully recovered from his wounds and he and Ripley got married and adopted Newt. Living comfortably off of the huge payout that the company was forced to make, they settled down to focus on being parents and giving Newt the love she needed, and getting it in return. Bishop's memories and personality were put into a new Bishop body and he lived as a butler/valet/friend with his good friends the Hicks family.
Michael Biehn as Hicks at least survived this movie, and having him survive was a nice twist on the 'everyone but one person dies' horror movie trope. And the old joke held true: If he doesn't have a mustache he's a good guy.
The actress who played Vasquez, the ultimate bad-A marine, Jenette Goldstein, is in three of my top twelve favorite movie series, and sadly she dies in all three. She's still awesome here though.
Bill Paxton as Hudson was great. He was scared as crap, but when it was time for action he was right there in the thick of it, doing the best he could, no matter what. And once he was focused he kicked ass: cracking access to the doors on first entry, tapping into the systems to find the schematics of the layout, there with gun blazing to kill the facehugger that was threatening Newt, and scared as he was he was all in for the fighting at the end, dying bravely in combat.
The three actors named above, plus Lance Henriksen who played Bishop, were also in the Terminator series.
One of my favorite stories about this movie was told by Paul Reiser who played Carter Burke. He took his mother to the premiere and told her nothing about the movie beforehand. She joined in with the rest of the audience applauding when Burke died, and from an article I read he said that for weeks afterward every time they saw each other when she first saw him she got this look of disgust on her face, this "I can't believe you did that to those people" kind of look. That's what made him really believe that he could be an actor.
I really like the extended version because it adds a lot of great backstory early on in the movie about Ripley finding out about her daughter, which makes everything about Newt that much more poignant. And I'm a bitter, jaded old man with no heart or emotions to speak of (or so I'm told), but I still get teary eyed when Newt calls Ripley 'Mommy' at the end.
In spite of my past work in computers I'm absolutely a practical FX person, because digital FX are overused and rushed to the point of usually being awful. I am always amazed at the eerie but kinda sickly beautiful work that went into the practical FX for these two movies. Not just the aliens themselves, though they are incredible, but all the set dressing, the puppetry/animatronics, makeup and costuming, everything. The queen was basically a super sized puppet, but they did such an amazing job making it look terrifyingly real! The reveal of the queen in the movie was the first time either Sigorney Weaver or Carrie Henn (Ripley and Newt respectively) had seen it, so their stunned reactions are even more real.
I have my own Aliens movie story, which I think is amusing: After I graduated high school, I became a junior advisor for the church youth group I had belonged to before graduating. In 1988, when I was 20, we had a lock-in one fall weekend. The high school youth were allowed to pick movies to rent for the lock in. Aliens was one of the ones chosen. I had kind of seen it before, but it was as background while hanging out with friends, so I didn't know much about it. We started watching it around 11 p.m. All of the adults and most of the teens had gone to sleep in the rooms set aside for that, while a few teens and I started watching Aliens in the High School Sunday School room in the large mostly underground downstairs of the large church. The teens all left and went to sleep before we reached the halfway point, but I was interested so I stayed up and finished the movie. It was now around 1 a.m. All the lights were off because everyone but me was asleep. My last task before I could sleep was to go around the unlocked areas of the downstairs and make sure none of the teens had snuck off to do anything they shouldn't have. So here I am, walking through dark cinder block walled hallways with exposed ductwork overhead, and no lights except for the occasional faint red lights of the "Exit" signs. My heart is beating like a jackhammer as I carefully edge my way through the dark halls, knowing that there are no xenomorphs but still expecting some kind of jump scare that's going to make me lash out and crap myself at the same time. Luckily, everyone was fast asleep and I finished my rounds and went and lay down, but it was probably the least restful sleep I had and the most nervous I had ever been in church. 😀
Amelia, you really needed someone there with you just to remind you to breathe. Thought you were going to pass out a few times, glad you made it through ok and loved your reaction. Sending lots of ❤ and hugs your way.
I really enjoyed your reaction to these. Your commentary was minimal because you became so engrossed in the stories. ❤😊
For those who don't know, Queen are very smart. If someone threatens the hive, the Queen will stand down. She will protect the hive at all costs
I don't care how many times I've seen Aliens (probably over a hundred by now), the single greatest movie moment ever filmed is the cargo door opening to reveal Ripley in the power loader ready to fight for Newt.
I've never seen anyone suffer so much watching one of these movies before
Some people wonder what happened to her brother Timmy. I read the original novel to alien's. Timmy was not very good at hiding, he did not play in the air shaft tunnels. Newt also snuck to see her father in a vent inside the wall because no one was allowed to see him. She saw him die from a chest burster.
People (and cats!) do slowly age while in a hypersleep chamber but only at about 1/10th the normal rate so Ripley (and Jones the cat) would each be about 5.7 years older than the last time we saw them.
Im realy missing a «wrap up» on this chanel… every time, when the movie is over: its only «thank you for watching»… Where is the evaluation afterwords? And all the stuff you ask us to comment on in the comments… where is the folow-up on that?
@@hallgeirhansen9124 maybe that's on the patreon side?
"Is that a cat?" - Of course, it's Jones!
When Alien came out in 1979 I was working for United Artists Theaters as a manager. My wife and I were living in Pasadena at the time and we had yet to see the movie. We went to a midnight screening of Alien in the old single screen UA theater on Colorado Blvd. All of the showings had sold out and the staff was too small to handle the business. We were ankle deep in trash in the auditorium but no one really cared. We were sitting next to another couple on my left. Both my wife and the lady next to me each gripped one of my arms for most of the movie. She didn't even introduce herself afterward.
😂
Practical effects, no lousy CGI! Excellent.
1:09:33 - this is, without a doubt, my favorite moment in Aliens - it's the "FUCK YOU" moment - when the egg crosses the line that has been otherwise negotiated between the queen and ripley, and now all bets are off and EVERYTHING DIES IN FIRE!!!!...haha lolol...
Cat makes all the difference. 🐱🖤👍
Amelia is so FREAKIN' CUTE! 😍😄
I almost cant handle her cuteness. 😄
The little mannerisms she does with her entire face....😄....she is so adorable. 🥰😄
18:40 "Why are they smoking in space?"
It was 1979. Half the country smoked. In restaurants, in airplanes, everywhere.
Smoking was not banned on planes until 1990 and not in restaurants until 1995 (California was first, other states took even longer).
Back in 1964 the Surgeon General declared smoking as unhealthy.
Before that, it was actually thought, by doctors, to be a good way to relax.
I heard that in the 50s-60s some companies refused to hire non-smokers; they wanted relaxed employees that smoked to reduce stress.
(this is hard to verify because every search I do turns up modern arguments about discriminating against smokers)
Those bosses didn't just turn off their belief systems or hiring practices in 1964 because of a Surgeon General warning.
Regarding the movie, filmed in a time and by people who probably smoked, or sat in restaurants and airplanes full of smoke, this didn't seem too strange.
As for the air quality on the ship, the smoking isn't the problem.
Breathing is the problem.
Every time a human exhales, they put CO2 into the air.
The next time a human inhales, they get a little of that CO2 mixed in with their air.
More breathing, more CO2, less air, and eventually they breathe so much CO2 and not enough air and they all die.
It's why people suffocate in mineshaft collapses, or even putting a bag over their own head.
To solve this problem, NASA uses air "scrubbers", filters that clean the air, removing the CO2 and replacing it with new fresh air from storage tanks.
I'm sure the Nostromo does the same thing to keep the crew alive.
Using those same scrubbers to take a little smoke out of the air would be super easy.
They just need to change the filters a little more often.
So for the small cost of a few extra air filters, the company can have a relaxed, stress-free crew AND they can sell the cigarettes to the crew to offset the cost, maybe even turn a profit.
Is it unhealthy?
Yeah, but the company doesn't care, and neither do the smokers on the crew, just like the smokers here on Earth don't care too much about their own health.
There is a small shot in the elevator, when she is done arming herself and there is a moment when you can see her fear and doubt, then she takes a deep breath, shakes her head and puts herself together. Fear to determination, doubt to focus, I'm here not for myself but for her. Sigourney, writers and director crafted perfect thriller action movie character. This movie is 40 years old and very few woman characters come close in that genre.
ALIEN and ALIENS both back to back in one shot? OMG! Lady, you just got a LIKE and a Sub right then and there!
Those who saw both movies in theatres when they came out know that even if Alien was a masterpiece, Aliens is a totally different beast. Because even if it's on par with Alien, the sequel changed videogames and cinema forever. For years (maybe a decade) there were countless videogames like Doom where you were basically a marine in space. Also the movies were much more action oriented than before. Cameron has changed the entertainment world more than once in his career
This was Sigourney Weaver's first acting gig. The original ending ideas had the Alien die when the ship exploded. When they added the fourth act with a direct conflict with the Alien, the original ending had the Alien bite off Ripley's head and deliver the final monologue. Studio executives vetoed that ending hard, told Ridley Scott to refilm it with Sigourney Weaver's character surviving.
Also little known fact: Roger Corman was the original producer before Fox swooped in. James Cameron ghost directed a B-Movie rip off of Alien for Roger Corman. James Cameron would take what he learned from filming Galaxy of Terror (1981) and go on to film the official sequel.
So if you want to see a B-Movie monster schlock version of Alien that bridges some gaps between Alien and Aliens, watch Galaxy of Terror. James Cameron built the giant Maggot prop in Galaxy of Terror, and replaced a steel frame with a titanium frame for the Alien Queen.
Other fun fact that is more subtext in the final cuts, but more expressed in early work cuts and the early scripts: Ripley and Dallas were intimate. Ripley gets action in every movie. She's the James Bond of final girls.
When crews in this film universe go on deep space missions, they use hypersleep pods to put them into suspended animation. That way, they aren't using up as much food, water and oxygen for the long space voyages. When Ripley was found, she and her cat, Jonesy, were in those pods for 57 years, but they did not physically age (very much) during that time
@@longfootbuddy who cares