In 1979, the premiere of Alien It was a box office success. The film directed by Ridley Scottin which a group of space truckers died at the hands of an extraterrestrial threat, captivated viewers around the world. AND Sigourney Weaver -the actress who stepped into the shoes of Ripley, the heroine who ends up defeating the ferocious creature- suddenly became one of the most promising stars of her generation. For this reason, production was soon launched to carry out a sequel, which ended up enriching the universe of the fearsome xenomorphs.
At the beginning of the eighties, the director James Cameron outlined a script titled E.T., about a woman who had alien characteristics and who had been genetically modified to survive on the surface of Venus. The story also showed an ambitious company that was trying to take over that planet and that, in the end, was the real threat. But with the departure of E.T. by Steven Spielberg, Cameron ended up shelving his script, although he would keep several of those ideas in his mind.
Waiting to make the first Terminatorwhose script was received with great expectations in Hollywood, Cameron had six months off in which he tried to close a contract for new films. And one of the possibilities that opened up was to write the sequel to Alien. That space horror film was one of his favorites, and when the director was summoned to continue Ripley's adventures against the xenomorphs, his interest was immediate. Placing that heroine as the axis of the adventure was an idea that convinced the producers, who had ruled out Ridley Scott as responsible for the new feature film.
The director's intention Alien was to tell the origin of the xenomorphs, since for him the creature in the first film was “the last descendant of long-extinct beings.” But 20th Century Fox was not interested in that approach, and shortly afterwards, Scott said about not being called up for the sequel: “That hurt my feelings, especially because I thought we had done a great job with the first part.” . This story, although delayed, had a happy ending when the director released the films in 2012 and in 2017. Prometheus y Covenantin which he could tell the origin of the species.
Sigourney Weaver He had not signed a contract for a second part, and when he asked for an increase in his salary, 20th Century Fox resisted. The possibility of not having her was very real, and Cameron was ordered to develop an alternative plot without Ripley. The director accepted the request, but insisted that the heroine was almost essential in his vision of the plot. Finally, the parties were able to negotiate and Weaver received a significant increase that exceeded two million dollars.
The plot of Aliens: the return revolves around Ripley and a group of marines, who arrive on a planet where they find not one, but a battalion of aliens, thus starting a battle in which the excessive ambition of a company called Weyland played a key role. -Yutani. Unlike the first film, which had a horror tone and a single creature as a threat, Cameron's approach was an action epic with dozens of xenomorphs on screen. Precisely that premise, so different from that of its predecessor, allowed this title to complement the original piece.
Far from repeating the formula, Cameron sought a completely different tone. But the great challenge for the production was the climax of the film, in which the heroine had to face the Alien Queen. The dantesque creature required a gigantic assembly that included a crane for movement, several hydraulic motors in the neck, legs, torso and head, and numerous puppeteers to manipulate the face, jaw and lips.. Stan Winston, a leader in special effects at the time and responsible for coordinating the movements of the Alien Queen, said that this creature was “the most complex construction” he had to do in his entire career.
However, the toughest conflict Cameron faced was not the design of the creatures, the action sequences or respecting the budget. None of that: the main challenge was dealing with the technical team. Filmed at Pinewood Studios, a few kilometers from London, the local crew was English and, during the months in which filming continued, all the technicians were very reluctant to obey Cameron.
Neither Cameron nor the producer Gale Anne Hurd They had never worked with English workers, and there were unspoken issues that the director was unaware of. This led to countless disagreements between both parties. But what bothered Cameron most was the tea habit: no matter what was happening, or how complex the scene to be prepared, in the afternoon the technicians would stop everything at tea time, a habit that exasperated the director and that It put the production times of the feature film in crisis. “It was a very long filming and with many problems. And the only thing that kept me going was that I was certain that, when the movie was over, I was going to leave Pinewood Studios and never return there, while those bastards were going to remain there forever.“said the director in an interview.
When Sigourney Weaver began working with Cameron, she made several requests about how she thought Ripley should handle certain situations. First of all, since the actress is a firm opponent of the free sale of firearms, she wanted her character to shoot as little as possible.. Cameron told her that was fine with her, because Ripley herself didn't feel comfortable attacking anyone with triggers unless it was a totally essential situation. Weaver also insisted that her character die at the end, but Cameron flatly refused (although she had her revenge, as is known, in the finale of Alien 3).
Sigourney liked the way her heroine evolved, and the fears that followed her after what happened in the first film of the saga. Cameron crafted Ripley based on the experiences of many Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The partnership between the director and the actress was very fruitful. “I liked the way Jim knew how to convey the fury that Ripley had for everything she had lost, without losing sight of her essence as a woman,” she distinguished.
Aliens: the return It was released in theaters in the United States in July 1986 (it would arrive in Argentina in December of that year), and the success was resounding. The public showed their enthusiasm for a second part that expanded the world of xenomorphs in a fascinating way. Regarding its collection, the box office was so important that it even saved Fox from imminent bankruptcy, due to a significant string of commercial failures. Even many of those responsible for the first part, such as HR Giger (designer of the xenomorph) and Ridley Scott himself, praised Cameron's work as a superb director in terms of the construction of characters and action scenes, reflecting the talent from an author who, even today, does not demonstrate artistic ceiling.
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