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James Cameron's 1986 science fiction-horror epic was one of the few films that breaks a cinematic rule: a sequel that surpasses the original. 1979's Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, worked as a claustrophobic thriller, but the Cameron written and directed follow up was nothing short of a masterpiece of sight and sound. It received Oscar nominations for actress, art direction, film editing, music score (James Horner) and sound. It won two, for visual effects and sound effects editing. Although Cameron went on to even bigger films, such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Abyss, True Lies and Titanic, to many Aliens is still considered his best work. The original Alien, of course, featured the blue collar crew of the deep space cargo ship Nostromo under siege from a chestbusting, mutating alien creature. It was warrant officer Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) that finally destroyed the beast, although the rest of her crew died along the way. Aliens took place 57 years later, with Ripley coming out of an (unwanted) extended hibernation sleep, and soon discovering that the world, LV-426, where the alien life form was discovered, is now inhabited by Earth colonists. When contact with the planets human citizens is lost, Ripley joins a group of kick-assing Marines and a "company" executive and they set out to find out to found out what transpired. They arrive on LV-426, and things quickly turn to shit. The rest is history. The only returning Alien character (aside from Jones the cat) was Ripley, with Sigourney Weaver now getting top billing. The supporting actors were remarkably well cast. Cameron cast veterans Michael Biehn as Hicks, Bill Paxton as Hudson and Lance Henriksen as Bishop, the most prominent members of the Marine unit. Rounding out the Marines were William Hope as Gorman, Jenette Goldstein as Vasquez, Al Matthew as Apone, Mark Rolston as Drake, Ricco Ross as Frost, Colette Hiller as Ferro, Cynthia Scott as Dietrich, Daniel Kash as Spunkmeyer, Tip Tipping as Crowe and Trevor Steadman as Wierzbowski. Blink and you'll miss the last two. Stand up comic /actor Paul Reiser took the part of money grubbing yuppie Carter Burke, and young Carrie Henn landed the part of Newt, the girl who lost her family before hooking up with Ripley and co.
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