50 Fun Facts About Aliens (1986)

Who wrote and directed Aliens?

He got the job on the strength of his scripts for The Terminator and Rambo: First Blood Part II; Ridley Scott said he was never asked.

Who plays Ellen Ripley?

She received $1 million and a share of the profits, the highest salary of her career at that point.

Who plays Corporal Dwayne Hicks?

He was hired on a Friday after the original Hicks was let go, and missed the Marines' training as a result.

Who plays Newt?

Scouted at school in Lakenheath, England, with no acting experience, she never pursued acting afterwards and became a teacher.

Who plays the android Bishop?

He played the character as an innocent child who pities short-lived humans, and his 'blood' on set was milk.

Which panicky Marine private is played by Bill Paxton?

His 'Game over, man; game over!' came from a backstory Paxton invented in which the character trained on simulators.

Who plays the company representative Carter Burke?

It was his first major film role after small parts such as Beverly Hills Cop.

Which actress plays Private Vasquez?

It was her first film; she gained 10 pounds at the director's request and wore dark contacts and an hour of makeup daily.

What is the name of the Marines' spaceship?

The designer first imagined it as a sphere with antennae, but a flat freighter worked better passing the camera.

On which moon is the colony Ripley returns to?

The derelict alien ship seen there had been sitting in historian Bob Burns III's driveway since the first film.

In which month of 1986 was the film released in the US?

It opened at number one with $10.1 million from 1,437 theaters, ahead of The Karate Kid Part II.

What was the film's approximate budget?

Fox had estimated $35 million and chairman Barry Diller offered $12 million, at which point the director and producer quit until he relented.

At which studios near London was most of the film shot?

The director's parting words to the crew there: he would one day drive out the gate and never come back, and they would still be there.

How long was the treatment the director wrote in three days in November 1983?

It was built on the producers' suggestion of 'Ripley and soldiers'; one executive called it a constant stream of horror without character.

To sell the title, the director drew lines through its 's' to make what symbol?

The whiteboard story was thought apocryphal for years until he confirmed it in 2021.

If Alien was a haunted house, the director said the sequel should be like what?

He and the producer agreed to combine the horror of the original with the action of The Terminator.

Which novel were the Marine actors told to read to understand the space-soldier archetype?

The director also wrote a distinct backstory for every Marine.

Which actor was originally cast as Hicks and then fired early in the shoot?

He later admitted it followed an arrest for drug possession; two shots of him from behind survive in the film.

Bill Paxton credited his casting to a chance meeting with the director where?

Fox liked the idea after his turn in Weird Science; he worried the character would annoy people until he saw it as comic relief.

The Marine cast trained for three weeks with which military unit?

The idea was to build camaraderie and make them treat the non-Marine actors as outsiders.

Which Vietnam veteran in the cast helped train the actors to handle firearms?

He plays Sergeant Apone; the blanks were still hazardous, and one actor put a hole through a neighbouring set.

The original Hicks accidentally shot a hole through the set of which film on an adjacent stage?

Frank Oz was shooting his musical next door at Pinewood.

Which British film-industry tradition most frustrated the Canadian director?

They stopped production for up to an hour each weekday; the crew, for their part, took him for an American 'punk'.

Which cinematographer replaced Dick Bush after a dispute over lighting the hive?

Bush had insisted on lighting the alien nest brightly, against the director's wishes.

The hive sets were left standing and later redressed for which 1989 film?

Tim Burton turned them into the interiors of Axis Chemicals.

What was used as Bishop's android blood?

After several days of filming it had gone sour and foul-smelling.

How long is the theatrical cut?

Fox wanted it under two hours for more daily showings; the director refused another 12-minute trim. The extended cut runs 157 minutes.

Who composed the score?

It was his first collaboration with the director, and he called it a 'nightmare'; bits of Goldsmith's Alien score were cut in to fill gaps.

How many weeks did the composer end up having to write the score?

He had expected six; the music for the final battle with the queen was written overnight.

Where was the score recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra?

The director first heard it at the recording session, disliked it, and it was too late to change.

Unused portions of the Aliens score were repurposed for which 1988 film?

The score was so imitated that it turned up in action-film trailers for the following decade.

Which concept artist, famous for Blade Runner, designed the Marines' ship?

The director was a fan of his work on 2010: The Year We Make Contact; Ron Cobb designed the dropship and APC.

The Marines' armoured personnel carrier was a disguised version of what vehicle?

A sixth-scale replica drove through the colony miniature, which was about 80 feet long.

The smart guns were built around which German machine gun?

Attached to a Steadicam with motorcycle parts, they weighed up to 70 pounds, so the actors kept them on between takes.

The pulse rifle prop combined a Thompson submachine gun with which shotgun?

Ripley's actress disliked guns in general and worried about pulling the wrong trigger.

The colony's nuclear explosion was created by shining a light bulb through what?

Low-tech even for 1986; the 14-foot queen, by contrast, needed hydraulics the effects studio had never used before.

Which sportswear brand made Ripley's custom laceless sneakers?

Designer Taun Le's only brief was that one had to slide off easily in the finale; replicas went on sale in 2016.

H. R. Giger could not work on the film because he was contracted to which sequel?

Stan Winston took over the creature work and was reportedly disappointed the Swiss artist couldn't join.

How many alien suits were made for the film?

Dancers and stuntmen wore them; foam-covered leotards served for fast shots and detailed models for close-ups.

The director compared the queen to which creature, 'hideous and beautiful at the same time'?

Stan Winston thought the first design looked like a mantis crossed with a T. rex; the director called dinosaurs 'boring'.

What colour dye was mixed into the aliens' acid blood?

The rest of the recipe was titanium tetrachloride, cyclohexylamine and acetic acid.

Which film was 1986's top-grossing release in North America, well ahead of Aliens?

Aliens finished seventh domestically with about $85.1 million, but third or fourth worldwide.

Which Oscar did the film win?

Its other win was Sound Effects Editing; the Score, Editing, Art Direction and Sound nominations went home empty.

Ripley's actress lost the Best Actress Oscar to whom?

Hers was the first Best Actress nomination ever given for a science-fiction film.

How many Saturn Awards did the film receive?

Among them Best Supporting Actress for Goldstein, Supporting Actor for Paxton and Young Actor for Henn.

Who wrote the film's novelization?

He had also novelized Alien, and later Alien 3.

In which Marvel film do Spider-Man and Iron Man borrow the queen's defeat as a battle plan?

They use it to blow Ebony Maw out of a ship and free Doctor Strange.

Who produced the film and was married to the director during the shoot?

Fox doubted she could stand up to him; he said she was the only person who would.

Where did the AFI rank Ripley on its 2003 list of the 100 greatest heroes?

Empire's readers later put her ninth among the 100 greatest movie characters.

What was the film's tagline?

Industry insiders had it pegged as a sleeper hit from positive screenings; Time put it on the cover as 'The Summer's Scariest Movie'.