Welcome to The Multiverse, a column where'll you'll find Ars' explorations and meditations on the world of science fiction. The Multiverse covers things we love, the things we hate, and the things we do not yet understand from source materials new and old. Send questions, tips, or just say hi to The Multiverse's writers at themultiverse@arstechnica.com.
Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley stands in front of the squad of ten cocky, poised space marines. They laugh and joke, oozing bravado and testosterone—even the women. As the shavetail lieutenant lays out the situation, Bill Paxton’s mouthy PFC Hudson interrupts: “Is this going to be a stand-up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?”
“All we know is that there’s still no contact with the colony,” replies the lieutenant, Gorman, “and that a xenomorph may be involved.”
“Excuse me, sir,” interjects PFC Frost from the back row, “—a what?”
“A xenomorph,” repeats Gorman, emphasizing the syllables. It’s one of the few times in all four Alien series films where the creatures are referred to directly, rather than obliquely as “them” or “it.”
Hudson has a question.
Hudson has a question.
Of course, we in the audience know what’s waiting down on the planet below—the movie is called Aliens, after all. And as the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 haunted house masterpiece Alien, it was a film that was bound to be full of toothy, spiny, drooling monsters. But Gorman’s casual arrogance at quickly reeling off a name for the nameless terror that killed off Sigourney Weaver’s six (well, five, really) shipmates fifty years before implied that this wasn’t the squad’s first encounter with the titular bad guys, and that the creatures were just another casual foe that could be defeated by a combination of attitude and techno-toys. As you might expect, this assumption proves to be completely wrong, and the “xenomorph” term has been causing confusion ever since.
Aliens is among other things a Vietnam war allegory, pitting military arrogance against the implacability of an enemy unshackled by conventional definitions of combat. All the technology in the world, even these giant guns, won’t save our heroes. If they really are supposed to be our heroes.
Credit: 20th Century Fox
Aliens is among other things a Vietnam war allegory, pitting military arrogance against the implacability of an enemy unshackled by conventional definitions of combat. All the technology in the world, even these giant guns, won’t save our heroes. If they really are supposed to be our heroes. Credit: 20th Century Fox
Bug hunts and bad guys
During the marines’ post-thaw breakfast in the Sulaco’s cafeteria, PFCs Frost, Spunkmeyer, and Hudson joke about “Arcturian poontang” (along with how it apparently doesn’t matter whether the Arcturian with whom one is fooling around is male or female). And, of course, the faceless Weyland-Yutani corporation pulling the strings is clearly aware of life in the stars—after all, they diverted the Nostromo in the first movie to LV-426 specifically to bring back a sample of the alien life form which they already knew was there. And then there’s that whole Prometheus movie.