ALIENS (1986) 35th Anniversary

Released on this day 35 years ago was the second instalment in the Alien franchise, ALIENS (1986), written and directed by James’s Cameron.

The film was both a critical and box office hit, earning over $180 million (10x its production budget) and picking up seven Academy Award nominations including a best actress nomination for Sigourney Weaver, which was considered a landmark at the time for acting nomination for a film in the genre of Sci-Fi/Action/Horror. The film won two Oscars, one for sound editing and the other for visual effects.

Empire magazine ranked it as the best sequel of all time. While the original built suspense slowly through atmospheric tension, ALIENS is more of an action monster thriller, focusing more on terror rather than horror. The plot follows Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, who after being in suspended sleep for 57 years is returns to moon LV-426 accompanied by a battalion of marines.

Like many of Cameron’s film shoots, there were stories of a stressful and problematic production. The original director of photography was fired, James Remar left because of creative difference, at one point the crew walked out, and composer James Horner was quite vocal with his displeasure of the timeline and conditions he was given to create the score. To Cameron’s credit though, when 20th Century Fox approached him to take the film in a different direction and write a script without Ripley, he refused. Fox was in dispute over her contract which ended up being a million dollars plus royalties.

ALIENS is currently on Disney+, Crave and Hollywood Suite On Demand for streaming as well as rent through the usual online rental services. .