Aliens (1986): Looking back at the Colonial Marines massacre
We have talked about subverting expectations a few times before, most recently with me discussing the sharp turn from crime caper to vampire film in From Dusk Till Dawn. The best types of movies find ways to completely blow us away with changes and most of the time it’s just one scene that does it. Can you imagine if all of Dutch’s team in Predator got eliminated in one fell swoop or if the entire crew in Saving Private Ryan got taken out before getting to the bridge to help that titular character? James Cameron approached this with the wonderful police station shoot out in Terminator but perfected it in his next film. No, I’m not talking about making a sequel to Alien, one of the best horror movies and secret slashers of all time, that ended up being a genre switch into one of the greatest sci fi action films ever. As good of a turn as that is, I’m talking about the fate of the cool as ice Marine squad in the span of just under 10 minutes. This is Aliens and this is the scene that changes the movie.
Aliens is the 1986 sci-fi action movie, yeah with some horror sprinkled in, that falls into the category of one of the best sequels ever made. While it’s tough to say that it’s better the original because it’s basically a different genre and asking me to choose between something chocolatey or something sour when I have a sweet tooth, I certainly wouldn’t argue with anyone that said they preferred watching it to the original movie. James Cameron, fresh off his career making film The Terminator, had big Ridley Scott sized shoes to fill when taking on somebody else’s work to turn it into something new inside the continuity. What we got was a continuation of his mastery. The story was put together by Cameron himself as well as Walter Hill and David Giler with the screenplay getting credited to just Cameron. Regardless of what version of the movie you watch, it’s incredible. You may prefer the shorter, and I use that term loosely, version to the more drawn-out directors cut but the movie ends up wonderful regardless.
Cameron brought back Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, she was paid quite a lot more this time around thankfully, and she turned in an Oscar nominated performance as one of the most badass female protagonists ever. As good as she is, the rest of the cast is great either to hate completely with Paul Riser’s scumbag corporate officer Burke, a role that got a family member to slap him at the premiere, or the fun journey of a good android named Bishop from Lance Henriksen. The Marines are all solid too from Jenette Goldstein’s first role and first of a few collaborations with Cameron, to the one two punch of the late great Bill Paxton’s Hudson and Michael Biehn’s Hicks. Biehn would actually replace James Remar early on in production to add another career defining role for the actor. The Marines feel like a unit and their introduction scene was actually filmed very late in production to give them a feeling of comradery which they had after filming for so long.
It’s these Marines that are the center of the scene breakdown. The scene in question starts at 54 minutes into the runtime, well depending on your version of choice of course. After finding a whole lot of nothing in the seemingly abandoned colony, the trackers for the colonists show them all in a central location. The Marines go in, weapons hot after being slightly spooked the last 20 or so minutes. It becomes almost a Vietnam War allegory as they tread on unfamiliar ground. The cold steel of Hadley’s Hope has now become an organic trap. A stomping ground for the bugs they thought they could squish easily. Gorman, the leader of the mission with almost no experience, shows that lack of real time experience by not realizing that the Marines are in a building that could potentially explode if hit with the wrong ammo type. They are ordered to stow their big weapons and rely only on smaller caliber and flame, something not everyone has. As they search the catacomb-like structure they find a live colonist but not for long as a chest burster explodes out followed by the bright light and extreme heat of a flamethrower. The motion trackers light up and the confusion sets in as the walls come alive.
To fully understand the impact of the scene, we need to look at what leads up to it. At 18 minutes into the theatrical cut we are introduced to this rag tag group of badasses. They engage in group workouts, give each other crap, and generally act like a close team. They have their resident android Bishop, another great subversion after what we saw androids do in the first movie, do a knife trick on one of their hands and even discuss aliens which they not only don’t seem to be afraid of but potentially have banged it out with them? What’s also striking for the events about to unfold is that all of these characters have speaking lines, ya know, something you’d give to characters that would potentially be important for your movie. They definitely aren’t worried about another “Bug Hunt” and don’t believe Ripley when she says they need to take it seriously. They are lean and mean according to, well, themselves and Hudson even goes over all of the beautiful weaponry they have including pointed sticks, again in the longer version anyway.
They then show off their tactical prowess by letting themselves into the colony only to be slowly scared off. The music and almost all of the whimsical chatter stops and it’s just what’s left of the installation. This isn’t the fight they had prepared for and it’s unnerving, earie even. They get rattled by one of the motion trackers going off as well as when they see the signs of the things that Ripley warned them about, heck, even Newt knows that they screwed up and probably aren’t going to make it out of there. It’s now 1 hour in and they have walked into a trap. There is movement everywhere and their infrared doesn’t help them at all nor does the motion tracker madness make them feel comfortable at all. Within 30 seconds of the scene starting 4 are either dead or captured including the guy who had most of their ammo. They don’t really work together anymore. Their comms aren’t working, Gorman isn’t much help at all, just wait until he tries to stop pinhead in Hellraiser 2, and Apone their field leader is gone too.
We get some great almost found footage like views of their shoulder cams that kind of remind me of Event Horizon. Its perfectly illustrates how screwed they are as well as how disorganized they have become. Ripley takes action and heads out to try and save the Marines in one of her many scenes that show why she was nominated for an Oscar and Drake has the iconic line of “We are leaving” he didn’t mean we to include himself though as just before he is able to get into the vehicle, Vasquez shoots one of the xenos and it explodes into a wave of acid that kills him. That’s it. Less than 8 minutes of onscreen time and the group is down to 3. Hudson’s manic insanity is a metaphor for the group at large and the panic in his voice is very real. The Colonial Marines were wiped out maybe even faster than the colonists were and even when it’s time to leave, the ship is brought down when one of the aliens takes out the pilots. Apone and Dietrich are cocooned and as Hudson so succinctly puts it “Game over man, Game Over.”
This whole scene is as fun and thrilling to watch as it is devastating. All of these cool characters who were so prepared for this job have been completely wiped out. There is no way to take the aliens on with brute force and certainly not on their level or in their homes. It does a great job of mixing action, horror, tension, and adrenaline in ways we don’t often see. The closest thing I can think of in other movies is The Rock when the Navy SEALs sneak into the prison from the way Sean Connery escaped, and they find themselves in a trap set by the rogue military guys. Michael Biehn did not make it out of that one unfortunately, but he didn’t make it to Alien 3 either so here we are.
While a scene like the Marines getting absolutely wrecked is quick, brutal, and kind of a bummer for all the reasons I listed above already, it’s also quite needed. It threads the needle of horror in this movie like nothing else. It sets the precedent that any of the characters can die and quickly at that. It also shows just how unsafe and potentially screwed the survivors are the rest of the movie. There are some other horror elements strewn throughout the movie including Burke trying to get the girls implanted by face huggers, the aliens in the upper vents scene, and of course the quiet showdown with the Queen in her lair but the explosiveness and suddenness of all these characters being taken away is a completely different kind of horror. Alien 3 would even try to pull this off in a different fashion in a couple different scenes with both the explosion and the relay race near the end, but it doesn’t feel the same. Those prisoners aren’t armed nor are they nearly as well trained as our group, not to mention that their threat is a solo stalker like part one rather than a whole damn army.
I know its coming every time I fire up this movie on whatever cut I decide to take on that day, but it still never disappoints. The thrill of the fight with the music blaring after being absent, the deaths and the ones who will suffer a worse fate, and the narrowing down of the cast to give the others room to breathe are all part of the charm. The pieces leading up to it give it the impact, but the actual 8 minutes of screen time are some of the best and most subversive the genre has to offer. They really just should have nuked the place from orbit, just to be sure.
To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!
The post Aliens (1986): Looking back at the Colonial Marines massacre appeared first on JoBlo.