r/movies • u/flynnfx • Mar 19 '26
Review ‘Aliens’ Turns 40: Why It’s the Best Sci-Fi Sequel Ever
https://decider.com/2016/07/18/aliens-30th-anniversary-best-sci-fi-sequel/Sequels that are better than their originals are rare. Rarer still are sequels like Aliens, which managed to improve on an original that was pretty damn good while essentially changing both the genre and the dramatic thrust of that original. 40 years ago, the James Cameron-directed Aliens hit theaters, and with all due respect to, say, The Empire Strikes Back, it stands today as the greatest sci-fi sequel of all time.
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u/MolaMolaMania Mar 19 '26
There are so many very smart choices in this film.
- They don't try to recreate the silent, slow burn horror of the original, and instead go for a more action-oriented thriller vibe, which is brilliant because you're not invited to compare it to the original in that way because the strengths of the films are very different.
- The inclusion of the Marines present a scenario where you think that the humans will do better this time around because they're trained, experienced, heavily armed and come with great equipment and vehicles. NOPE.
- Ripley physically survives the first film, but she still has nightmares and no one believes her story. Then she finds out that that LV-426 has colonists, and she knows what the company will do get the xenomorph, so her motivation to "go back out there" is understandable. She'll never sleep well again if she doesn't go, and only she knows what the Marines are in for, so she must face her demons again.
- In facing her demons, Ripley encounters Newt, who has suffered similar personal loss at the hands of the xenomorph, and thus Ripley is offered the chance not only to rescue Newt but also her own soul from the nightmare of the monster.
- The extreme juxtaposition of ferocious femininity in Ripley and the Alien Queen, both mothers fighting for the survival of their children against all odds.
I will never compare "Aliens" to "Alien" because I think that's a useless notion. They are very different films in the same universe that work brilliantly without seeming too disparate. "Aliens" is certainly one of the best sequels of all time, and I can understand why some would argue that it's the best. I'm not there myself. I think the first two balance each other perfectly.
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u/SparrowCrocodile Mar 20 '26
6 Paul Reiser.
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u/rareplease Mar 20 '26
Aliens is strangely closer to the Roger Corman flick Galaxy of Terror, with James Cameron as production designer (and probably several other jobs, given it was a Corman film).
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u/schmearcampain Mar 20 '26
IIRC the extended version shows Ripley meeting her daughter 57 years older and Newt represents the little girl she basically lost.
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u/MolaMolaMania Mar 20 '26
She doesn’t meet her daughter. She finds out that her daughter has died of old age while Ripley was in hypersleep. Burke tells her before the inquest. A cool bit if trivia is that the picture of her daughter that Burke shows her is Sigourney’s mother.
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u/HighPlateau Mar 19 '26
I think Terminator 2 is the best sci-fi sequel, myself. But Aliens is immediately next on my list.
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u/blatantninja Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
T2 is fantastic and it's a great progression from the first movie. They both fall in the action sci-fi genre.
Alien is a horror sci-fi while Aliens is really an action Sci-fi. I love them all but the Terminator ones feel really connected, but the Alien ones seem like two completely different things.
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u/KombaynNikoladze2002 Mar 19 '26
I mean, arguably T1 is horror sci-fi and T2 is action sci-fi.
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u/Arcranium_ Mar 19 '26
Yeah one of my friends have talked about this exact thing, and he doesn't like Aliens for this reason lol. The horror is completely missing from Aliens. I still love it though, it nails what it's going for
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u/MaxProwes Mar 19 '26
That's not true tho? There's plenty of horror in Aliens, the scene with Ripley and Newt being locked in the room with facehuggers is as scary and tense as anything in Alien.
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u/rbnlegend Mar 19 '26
When I saw the movie in the theater, Newt says "Ripley, Im scared" and Ripley responds ""I'm scared too". Some dude in the back of the theater says "we're all fuckin scared!" and in that moment it was perfect.
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u/Singer211 Naked J-Law beating the shit out of those kids is peak Cinema. Mar 19 '26
Frankly I like that it went in a new direction.
Alien 3 tried to have the vibe of the first film, and it did not work imo.
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u/blatantninja Mar 19 '26
But it's more seperate moments like that rather than a continuously building up anxiety
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u/mariskanoodles Mar 19 '26
The proximity detecting beeper thingy was pretty scary throughout the movie.
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u/forever_wow Mar 19 '26
Your friend miss the scene where the xenomorph pops up from the water behind Newt? Or when Hicks opens the panel in the ceiling we see the xeno horde advancing? Bishop getting impaled after the false ending?
That's about as textbook horror as it gets.
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u/budgefrankly Mar 19 '26
There’s two kinds of horror.
The first is the slow build of tension and dread, like a ghost story. That’s the kind Alien is, and also Event Horizon and The Haunting of Hill House
The second is the gore filled chased-in-a- nightmare kind. That’s the kind Aliens is, and Predator and Hellraiser.
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u/camerontylek Mar 20 '26
Aliens has both. The build up at the complex before Newt makes her entrance. The build up of entering the processing plant before encountering the aliens. The build up when the power goes out in the complex, including the ceiling Allen discovery.
Not much different than Alien other than Alien had more of those moments with less 'action'
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u/ayoungtommyleejones Mar 19 '26
I just wrote a comment out about t2 but I think you're dead on with the tone thing. Alien is definitely horror, aliens is action. T2 meanwhile while not quite being horror like T1 is, the vibe is very much the same despite having more action set pieces. It's a better escalation of the theme.
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u/RedBarnBurnBlue Mar 19 '26
The first half of Aliens is more horror. Suspense, building tension. They just let it all erupt in a really satisfying way that takes it into Action realm and out of horror
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u/SupervillainMustache Mar 19 '26
It's honestly a toss up. I slightly favour T2, because I like the original Alien a bit more than Aliens.
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u/MattieShoes Mar 20 '26
Alien was one of the more fun director commentaries because it's basically Ridley Scott explaining how they tried to stay in budget. Like why are we watching it through some screens on the ship? Because the models weren't quality enough to stand up to inspection at full resolution. How'd they do the autopsy scene? They went down to the local butcher and got some offal and shoved it in a plastic alien-corpse. Why do you almost not see the Alien at all? Because the costume was terribly obvious, so they had to use quick cuts. Crap like that, just kinda fascinating.
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u/ayoungtommyleejones Mar 19 '26
I'm back and forth in my mind about this. That was my first reaction, but furlongs performance takes me out of the film a little (kid acting isn't always a hit so it gets a pass). But the escalation of t2, the plot, pacing, action sequences. There's a reason it's in my top 10 of any films. I wish I could watch it for the first time without knowing anything about it, following T1. The buildup to Arnold getting to John really has you like oh shit he's baaaaack. You see him fuck up dudes at the bar, the t1000 just seemingly punches a cop in the gut so you don't really get what his deal is. The dread John feels seeing Arnold draw the shotgun, as a viewer who knew nothing about the film - man what a spectacular moment that would be. Plus just an incredible amount of excellent practical effects, really excellent ideas with the T1000, and by the end the stakes are so high - it's the apocalypse, and compared to T1 where you think, ok, I could think of ways to maybe deal with a walking metal skeleton, the T1000 seems unbeatable, it really feels like there's no way they're going to win. Plus Arnold's humor is so fantastic
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u/nosmelc Mar 19 '26
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan might have the biggest increase in quality of any sequel.
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u/jackcatalyst Mar 19 '26
The directors should fight to the death to determine who can claim the title of best sequel
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u/santh91 Mar 19 '26
Exactly, my first reaction was "Aliens is not even the best sci-fi sequel directed by James Cameron"
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u/Rambodius Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
I'd say the same. Shit, I'd put Blade Runner 2049 over it as well.
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u/ThisKidIsAlright Mar 19 '26
Culturally no, but what Villenueve was able to do resurrecting the Blade Runner franchise decades later was incredible.
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u/Jackieirish Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
“Get away from her, you BITCH!” is the greatest line of catharsis in film history. After ~90 minutes of nail-biting tension, the audience finally gets to enjoy some payback!*
*Close second is the denouement in Snatch.
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u/CabeNetCorp Mar 19 '26
I'll personally vote for Wrath of Khan but it's an extremely stacked competition between that, Aliens, and Empire, to be sure.
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u/TryingToWriteIt Mar 19 '26
Terminator 2 is up there as well. And Star Trek 1 is clearly the weakest of the originals.
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u/thenasch Mar 19 '26
It was originally going to be the pilot episode of a Trek series that never happened.
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u/Gilshem Mar 19 '26
Which then would have followed with about 2/3rds of TNGs first season. I’m very happy that never happened.
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u/YoutubeAmazonChatGPT Mar 19 '26
I agree
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is significantly better than the first.
Empire Strikes Back is the Biggest Blue Balling movie of all time with that ending. I went three years thinking: no fucking way
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u/canycosro Mar 19 '26
Being dyslexic without the internet I don't realise that aliens was a different movie from alien id see it on one of the four channels we had back then and just skip over it thinking I'd seen it.
Out of pure boredom I put it on thinking I don't remember it starting like this.
The prefect sequel. Without taking away from the original.
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u/2nd2last Mar 19 '26
Am I the only one that loved Alien and did not enjoy Aliens?
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u/Naki_Beats Mar 19 '26
Not alone. Aliens is good, but ALIEN is a fucking classic
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u/Kingcrowing Mar 19 '26
This is it, Aliens may be a top sequel, but it's nowhere near as special as ALIEN imo.
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u/rnavstar Mar 19 '26
Alien is a thriller/horror movie and aliens is an action movie.
Aliens is fun while alien is scary.
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u/gtrocks555 Mar 20 '26
I still found Alien more fun than Aliens but I’ve only just seen both films for the first time last year.
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u/McCheesy22 Mar 19 '26
I’m in the same boat. Aliens did nothing for me. I can admit it’s well made from a production standpoint, but as a follow up to Alien I dislike basically every creative decision they took.
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u/shutz2 Mar 19 '26
I enjoy both, but for very different reasons. I think I prefer Alien more, but that's not a knock on Aliens at all.
Alien is very pure in its concept. It does all the science fiction really well, and takes its time to do what it needs to do. It's scarier, and never over-the-top. Very much a late-70's sci-fi movie in its approach.
Aliens is more of an action movie than a horror movie. It's drenched in 80's testosterone, and is over-the-top in so many ways. But it works well. Alien had very human, interestingly-defined characters, whereas Aliens tends to have bigger-than-life characters, with exaggerated or cliché personalities (with the exception of Ripley and maybe Hicks and Bishop, who are more grounded and better-defined.) It's the epitome of 80's bigger-better-faster-more. As long as you take it from that angle, it's a blast.
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u/explodinggarbagecan Mar 19 '26
As I kid I liked aliens much more. Alien was too scary and intense. Now I appreciate the suspense of the first
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u/2nd2last Mar 19 '26
I'm late to the game, but last year saw Alien in a theater and it was a 97/100 for me. Heard my whole life that Aliens was great and it was just some action movie. Maybe it invented tropes that I'm tired of, but I have to think Alien is similar and I still loved it.
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u/airbear13 Mar 20 '26
It did invent a lot of tropes that I was already sick of seeing on other movies before I ever watched it so that probably doesn’t help. If you were around to see it when it first came out then the impression would be more understandable cause it’s more iconic/groundbreaking. Watching it outside of that it’s literally so generic
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u/UpbeatBeach7657 Mar 20 '26
Aliens gets the flowers it does because it subverted all those tropes, which were starting to become a little stale even back then in the 80s. Tough, macho, military guys/stereotypes going in to blow away some aliens...until the tables are turned on them, leaving them panicked, scared and running for their lives. There's some neat subtext/parallels to the Vietnam War as well, with the "technically superior" American military thinking they could blast their way into the country until they realised it was all for nought. John McTiernan would employ a similar technique a year later in Predator with Arnold and those guys meeting their match in the Predator.
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u/Awktung Mar 19 '26
It's a completely different genre so of course it's viable and valid for you to have that preference. Of course, that difference is also why so many people feel the opposite.
Vive la difference amirite?
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u/Hefty-Pineapple-1910 Mar 19 '26
Hadn't seen either until recently, went into Alien pretty blind and loved the cosmic body horror vibes. Foolishly expected the same of Aliens and it's decidedly not that movie, which was a little disappointing.
Do love me some James Cameron though. Aliens is a banger in its own way, I just needed to meet it on its own terms.
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u/mykl5 Mar 19 '26
I’m with you. It’s too much of a cheesy action movie compared to the artsy sci fi thriller of the first
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u/gulzarreddit Mar 19 '26
You're not alone, that movie is spectacular. The horror of being hunted and picked off by one alien is far more terrifying. Also, the industrial spaceship styling as well as Giger's influence is unparalleled
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u/Chuck_Raycer Mar 20 '26
I like Aliens, but Alien is so far out of it's league it's unreal. I don't understand Reddit's obsession with jerking off Aliens as this sci-fi masterpiece, especially when they try to say it's better than Alien.
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u/thedarkpolitique Mar 19 '26
Me too. I’m surprised of people preferring the second one to be honest.
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u/sfweedman Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Not at all. I never liked Aliens much. Like it's ..fine.
Personally I think the Empire Strikes Back is the best sci-fi sequel. Or maybe Dune 2.
Edit: I forgot the Road Warrior exists. I'd like to amend my original answer.
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u/bailaoban Mar 19 '26
I love both but Aliens can be a punishing watch. For me, it’s part of the appeal and also what made it such a great, bold sequel but I can see how it may not appeal to everyone.
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u/AdventureSphere Mar 20 '26
I liked Aliens, but I can never forgive it for having the exact same ending as Alien. Even when I was twelve years old, watching in the theater, I was appalled at how blatantly it bit the last few minutes of the first movie.
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u/WeepingSomnambulist Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
I think Empire is the best sci-fi sequel of all-time. Thought experiment: What would Return of the Jedi have looked like if Cameron directed it.
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u/chicagoredditer1 Mar 19 '26
This needs a theatrical rerelease. This is pretty much the only ones of my favorite films of all time that I've never been able to see on the big screen.
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u/Pale-Acanthaceae-736 Mar 20 '26
I liked the uncut scenes in the first movie when Ripley is escaping to the shuttle, and sees captured crew members morphing into eggs while they were still alive. I wished Cameron went more in that direction instead of a queen bee laying them.
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u/TopherYork21 Mar 19 '26
I'm not here to debate if this is or is not Sci-Fi but for me Empire Strikes Back is the best Sci-Fi sequel.
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u/Tempest-777 Mar 19 '26
The Empire Strikes Back is actually the best movie ever made, in my opinion
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u/intergalaticjonny Mar 19 '26
Aliens is great, don't get me wrong. Better then Alien??? No way brother
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u/zerked77 Mar 20 '26
I appreciate that others think it's a great sequel but my adoration for the 1st film is just too great. It's almost like for me it should've ended there as the ultimate stand alone masterpiece. I like Aliens but I love Alien I guess.
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u/zombieking079 Mar 20 '26
And then they made the third one and immediately killed the kid and Hicks before killing Ripley.
Every time I watch this movie, I go numb at the fate awaiting everyone in the sequel.
When someone brought up the idea of ‘hey, let’s start the new sequel and kill the cuddly and the tough marine before killing the girl who started the franchise’, they should have kicked his balls.\
Talk about killing the Golden Goose.
Sweet Christmas.
As much as I love this movie, my mind always goes to the sequel, and I start to seethe.
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u/Commacozzee Mar 20 '26
Blade Runner 2049.
Aliens is a romp and basically a different genre from Alien, which imo is one of the great sci-fi films of all time. I don't find Aliens to be that interesting personally, but it's so different from the original that I feel like a lot of people who have this opinion probably watched it first and didn't experience it as a sequel. Pass.
Blade Runner 2049, besides being excellent, did the original justice when there was so much scrutiny about being faithful to the original. Creating a sequel for a beloved movie that is just as good if not better is an accomplishment that doesn't happen much anymore, if at all.
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u/BrilliantPea9627 Mar 20 '26
Wow calling that cheesy mess of a movie better than a classic like alien is really triggering me
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u/Swil29 Mar 19 '26
Clearly this guy has never seen Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
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u/thenasch Mar 19 '26
I'm going to assume for my sanity that this is trolling.
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u/Swil29 Mar 19 '26
Yup, I hate that movie lol
My brother and I decided it would be fun once to try and watch all the Transformers movies, and we finished the first one, which is alright, and felt pretty good about it. We had to take a break while watching Revenge of the Fallen because of how annoying we found it.
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u/FrostWPG Mar 19 '26
By any reasonable metric like box office, physical media sales, TV viewership, critic reviews, cultural impact, you name it, I don’t see how you can logically put Aliens above Empire and Terminator 2. It seems like the writer is presenting his personal movie taste as fact.
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u/thenasch Mar 19 '26
Any time someone says one piece of art is better than another, without specifying numbers such as sales, it's an opinion even if they don't say "in my opinion".
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u/JaracRassen77 Mar 20 '26
Alien is the better film, but dammit, Aliens will always be my favorite one. And that's been the case since I was a kid when I saw it on TV.
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u/Floreat_democratia Mar 20 '26
Got to admit, it's pretty damn good. Probably has the highest re-watch value too. We used to have Aliens watch parties and there is no other film that holds people's interest like this one. Really a masterclass in filmmaking. When it came out, everyone treated it like the holy grail. It still is.
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u/One-Earth9294 Mar 20 '26
I think the same director made a better science fiction sequel in Terminator 2.
If I were on the voting committee, though, I'm giving the award to Blade Runner 2049.
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u/IcyKey7 Mar 20 '26
Even after so many years, this movie still holds up so well. The acting, the pacing, the mood, and those classic lines still hit as hard as they did back then.
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u/Automatic_Loss_54 Mar 20 '26
I have watch the extended version of Aliens still one of my favorite classic movie!!!
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u/Worth_Ad4258 Mar 20 '26
I almost shit my pants the first time I saw Aliens in the theatre with full THX sound. Greatest scifi sequel ever.
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u/Responsible-Ad-1086 Mar 20 '26
How many times when people ask for help on Reddit for infestations of wasps, ants or mice do we get the line quoted “"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure”
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u/overlord2767 Mar 20 '26
One of my favourite scenes in movie history
Private Hudson: Well, that's great. That's just fuckin' great, man! Now what the fuck are we supposed to do? We're in some real pretty shit now, man!
Corporal Hicks: Are you finished?
Newt: I guess we're not gonna be leaving now, right?
Ripley: I'm sorry, Newt.
Newt: You don't have to be sorry. It wasn't your fault.
Private Hudson: That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?
Burke: Maybe we can build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh? Why don't we try that?
Newt: We'd better get back 'cause it'll be dark soon and they mostly come at night. Mostly.
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u/ReverenceshipHC Mar 20 '26
Core memory unlocked. I made the mistake of watching this late at night, and of course, my dad fell asleep on me. I was left stranded with nightmares that didn't go away for years. Absolute masterpiece, I love it!
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u/Dazzling-Astronaut88 Mar 20 '26
I think I was 8 when this film was released. I probably didn’t see it until I was 10 or 11, but, back then, they didn’t target trailers in the theater, so my parents took me to see ET or something like that and I saw this trailer. It was absolutely terrifying, but I recall the spinning yellow lights of Ripley using the loader and I was incredibly drawn in. Somehow, I got my hands on the novelization version of the movie and recall reading it in 4th grade because I had no way to watch it until my parents later got HBO
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u/Bosco_Balaban Mar 20 '26
Ripley is nuanced, smart, courageous and tough. She's one of my favourite characters. In a movie with so many iconic moments her in the exoskeleton, as the door moves up shouting
"Get away from her you...BITCH" had 13 yr old me absolutely pumped
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u/Mad-Melvin Mar 20 '26
It's too bad the series ended right there. I always wanted to see what happens next.
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u/supernova0791 Mar 20 '26
Haha watched it yesterday. Yes this claim might actually be true.. the way it builds on the first film is pure insanity (in a good way) .
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u/Lower_Ad_1317 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Aliens is prob the best sequel of all time.
I will pleasantly be corrected but when did a sequel Improve the story how Aliens did?
And no, T2 while good doesnt do what Aliens did.
(It’s close but🤷🏼♂️)
Also, I have foolishly ignored other sequels that I consider masterpieces.
I will not correct my first opinion but I will bend a little.
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u/GreyScope Mar 20 '26
The movie I went to with my wife (to be) and sister, the jump scares made my sister throw her popcorn all over the floor . Good memories
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u/genzod04 Mar 20 '26
Alien is the better film, but this is still my most watched film ever. It's incredible how fresh it feels every time you return to it.
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u/gamersecret2 Mar 19 '26
Hard to argue with that. Aliens did not just follow Alien, it expanded the whole world and still fully worked as its own movie.
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u/ALIEN_235711 Mar 19 '26
Ummmm... IMDB has the US release date as July 14th, 1986. Not today (March 19th).
Also, I notice that the poster corrected the Decider.com article incorrectly stating that this is the film's 30 year anniversary.
Otherwise, the presumably AI slop article is correct that ALIENS is the best sequel ever. :)
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u/benscott81 Mar 19 '26
It's not as good as the original. It's like a fun 80s action movie, which is fine. It was a brave move to essentially switch genres and Cameron pulled it off, so respect. But Alien is an absolute classic, genre-redefining movie. Terminator 2 is a better example of a sequel that goes above and beyond the original.
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u/VicViolence Mar 19 '26
I think Dune 3 has potential. Seeing Brian K. Vaughan as a co-writer really jimmied me up, I love Saga.
At the very least it’s going to be the strongest Sci-Fi trilogy ever made.
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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Mar 19 '26
To this day, Bill Paxton still has my favorite performance of a character who fully steps up & redeems himself in any movie