History Film / Aliens

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: When they're trapped by xenomorphs, [[spoiler:Vasquez and Gorman]] commit suicide via grenade in the Hadley's Hope air ducts rather than be captured and impregnated.

* FateWorseThanDeath: In the novelization, Ripley found Burke in the queen's nest, and left him with a primed grenade when he said that he could feel the chestburster moving inside him.
** Also apparently the fate of Apone and Dietrich, if the explosion of the atmospheric processing station didn't kill them first.

* ProductPlacement: The Power Loaders are apparently manufactured by Caterpillar, but unfortunately they're not a real product. Ripley is also seen wearing Reeboks.

** There are two things that may be references to Creator/StanleyKubrick films. The movie opens with slow, desolate shots of ''Alien'''s lifeboat drifting through space, accompanied by music from Aram Khachaturian's ''Gayane'' ballet suite; the same music is used for the lonely establishing shots of the ''Discovery'' in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''. Later, in the director's cut, there is a scene of people working on the colony on LV-426. In this scene, there is a low angle shot of a child riding on a Big Wheel tricycle. This could be a reference to ''Film//TheShining''. This same tricycle was seen in ''[[{{Franchise/Terminator}} The Terminator]]'', and again in ''[[{{Franchise/Terminator}} Terminator 2: Judgment Day]]''.

* GreedyJew: Carter J Burke, whose justification for murdering 157 innocent civilians is?
--> Okay, look. What if that ship didn't even exist, huh? Did you ever think about that? [[NeverMyFault I didn't know!]] So now, if I went in and made a major security issue out of it, everybody steps in. Administration steps in, [[OnlyInItForTheMoney and there are no exclusive rights for anybody;]] nobody wins. So I made a decision and it was... wrong. [[LackOfEmpathy It was a bad call, Ripley, it was a bad call.]]
** [[MeanCharacterNiceActor Paul Reisure]] laments having played a character ''so hateful'' that ''his own mother'' whispered "good" when the Aliens killed him.

* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: The [=M41A=] Pulse Rifle says hi. Ditto the [[BigFancyGun M56 Smart Gun]] wielded by Vasquez and Drake. Hudson talks about particle weapons in his BadAssBoast, but no one gets to use them in the movie.

** There are two things that may be references to Creator/StanleyKubrick films. The movie opens with slow, desolate shots of ''Alien'''s lifeboat drifting through space, accompanied by music from Aram Khachaturian's ''Gayane'' ballet suite; the same music is used for the lonely establishing shots of the ''Discovery'' in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''. Later, in the director's cut, there is a scene of people working on the colony on LV-426. In this scene, there is a low angle shot of a child riding on a Big Wheel tricycle. This could be a reference to ''Literature/TheShining''. This same tricycle was seen in ''[[{{Franchise/Terminator}} The Terminator]]'', and again in ''[[{{Franchise/Terminator}} Terminator 2: Judgment Day]]''.
** The Director's Cut has a BadAssBoast speech from Hudson which mentions "phased plasma rifles." [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} Presumably they're in the 40-watt range.]]

* VasquezAlwaysDies This film is the {{Trope Namer|s}}. The chinup-pulling, [[SmallGirlBigGun smartgun-wielding]] Colonial Marine Vasquez dies, while the maternal, civilian Ripley lives. Several other female marines also die, but are given less characterization and attention. James Cameron likes his {{Action Girl}}s, but they apparently need to be [[MamaBear acting on maternal instincts]].

** The last we see of Ripley's cat is when Ripley tells him she decided to take the mission. In the novelization, she left him on earth (commenting that only she needed to go back into danger).
*** Given what happens in the next movie, Jones the cat may have the happiest ending of any of the characters in this movie.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler:Played completely straight in the second, as Private Frost gets a flamethrower to the face as soon as the squad gets ambushed and Sergeant Apone gets grabbed by aliens in the same scene (though his ''death'' is somewhat delayed).]]
* BookEnds: The film starts and ends with a spaceship silently drifting into space, with the crew in artificial sleep.
* BrokenBird: Ripley at the start of Aliens, recovers in that film [[spoiler: until Alien 3 she gets worse.]]

* CatScare: Newt's first appearance, to the extent that in the novel, Hicks has to knock Drake's smartgun off target so as not to kill her. The novel also uses this scene, but with Vasquez instead of Drake.

** Sergeant Apone orders the airlock sealed near the beginning of the mission. Near the end Ripley uses it to [[spoiler:dispose of the alien queen.]]
** The tracking device that Ripley gives to Newt and that Ripley later uses to [[spoiler:track down Newt and save her.]]

* DangerDeadpan: The DropShip pilot, Ferro.
* DangerTakesABackseat: Corporal Ferro.

* DisposablePilot: The gunship pilot.
* DistressCall: There's a Cessation of Communications with [=LV426=]. [[spoiler:This was a result of a Weyland-Yutani action. Burke directed the colonists to the dormant Aliens, resulting in the slaughter of all humans on the planet.]]

* DropShip: The two dropships; perhaps one of the first examples of this trope to appear on film. They were designed by Syd Mead who did the art of ''Film/BladeRunner'', and were based on the US helicopters from the Vietnam War. (And refined by Ron Cobb and then completely kitbashed by James Cameron, who was inspired by the Apache helicopter, depending on who you ask.)

* EpicFail: The Colonial Marines enter the atmosphere processor without realizing that the central cooling units can be pierced by conventional weaponry - which they only discover ''after'' they're knee-deep in the hive and Ripley points it out to them. Then, Gorman orders the Marines to give up all their ammo to one man (and are subsequently forced to use flamethrowers), and said Marine happens to be the first casualty when the xenomorphs attack. This in itself was brought on by the Marines not understanding that the creatures were hiding in the walls. The only reason anyone escaped is because several of the soldiers (Ripley included) disobeyed orders and/or carried backup weapons.

* FailedASpotCheck: One of the Marines is looking almost directly at an alien nested in the wall, but fails to see him [[HiddenInPlainSight amidst the mass of pipes and conduits on the walls and ceilings.]]

** Gorman, big time.

* InstantCooldown: Averted. The overloading power plant reaches a point where it's too late to stop it from exploding even if the cooling systems are fixed.

* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: The [=M41A=] Pulse Rifle says hi. Ditto the [[BigFancyGun M56 Smart Gun]] wielded by Vasquez and Drake.

* PoweredArmor: The Power Loader Ripply uses is an interesting example of one ''without'' the "armor" part of the trope, being mostly an open frame used for loading cargo like a wearable forklift. [[AllThereInTheManual Outside film material]] implies that Colonial Marines sometimes used an actual armed and armored version of the same technology for special situations, though the ones in the film do not seem to have one in their armory.

* ProductPlacement: The Power Loaders are manufactured by Caterpillar, but unfortunately they're not a real product. Ripley is also seen wearing Reeboks.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Gorman in does this, big time.]]

** {{Subverted|Trope}} in the case of [[spoiler:Bishop]], who is {{foreshadow|ing}}ed to be one several times, playing on Ripley's prior bad experience, even potentially faking out the audience at one late point when a betrayal seemed the most obvious deduction. However, they are all {{Red Herring}}s, he turns out to be one of the most reliable members of the group, coming in at the last minute for a GunshipRescue.

* SensorSuspense: Preceding the "They're crawling through the ducts!" scene. And in the deleted sentry scene right before that, seeing the ammo count from the sentry guns decline rapidly.

** Ripley discovers Burke [[spoiler:sent colonists to the Space Jockey's ship]], with the company log's reference being 6.12.79. December 6, 1979 was ''Alien'''s release date.

** Ripley starts out as a simple commercial freighter officer and ends up kicking ass.

* {{Understatement}}: Burke tries to explain away his deadly scheme as "I made a decision, and it was... wrong. It was a bad call, Ripley. It was a bad call." Ripley immediately calls him out.

* WeWillWearArmourInTheFuture: The Colonial Marines have fairly realistic armour.

* YouAreInCommandNow: Hicks.

* WallCrawl
* WeldTheLock

* VasquezAlwaysDies This film is the {{Trope Namer|s}}. [[spoiler:The chinup-pulling, [[SmallGirlBigGun smartgun-wielding]] Colonial Marine Vasquez dies, while the maternal, civilian Ripley lives. Several other female marines also die, but are given less characterization and attention. James Cameron likes his {{Action Girl}}s, but they apparently need to be [[MamaBear acting on maternal instincts]].]]

* VasquezAlwaysDies

* FinalGirl: [[spoiler:Ripley and Newt are the only ones left standing at the end, though Hicks and Bishop are still alive.]]

** Ripley shows that she knows how to use a Powerloader early on in ''{{Aliens}}'', and the scene is played for "Getting to know you" laughs. She later uses that same powerloader to [[spoiler:fight the Alien Queen.]]

* BadassCrew: The Colonial Marines certainly fit the bill. [[spoiler:Too bad they don't last long.]]

* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: In ''Aliens'', Ripley putting Newt to bed. Among others.

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: The Marines use guns in a combat setting fairly professionally in ''Aliens'', but one example of horrendous gun safety stands out: when Vasquez and Ripley are helping Bishop into a conduit, Vasquez cocks a pistol and hands it to Bishop, ''who immediately puts his finger on the trigger.'' He then hands it to Ripley, finger still on the trigger and pointed straight at her. Ripley accepts it and sets it aside, thumb grazing the trigger while it's pointing at Vasquez. Bishop may be an android and thus incapable of unintentional twitches, but casually handing a loaded firearm to an untrained civilian is something a military android should be programmed to avoid. Averted when Hicks warns Newt away from weapons (specifically a grenade) and later gives Ripley a crash course in military firearms.

* BookEnds: ''Aliens'' starts and ends with a spaceship silently drifting into space, with the crew in artificial sleep.

* GratuitousSpanish: In ''Aliens'', Vasquez and to a lesser extent Burke tend to mix some proper Spanish terms every now and then.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Hicks, the only surviving Marine in ''Aliens'', flirts with Ripley while teaching her to use a pulse rifle. There's also an earlier scene where Hicks gives Ripley one of the colonist's tracking devices, telling her it'll help him find her if they get separated and awkwardly trying to put it on her wrist. Ripley defuses the situation be remarking that it doesn't mean they're married now, and puts it on herself.

** Did no one save those poor, innocent hamsters from [[spoiler:nuclear vaporization]] at the end of the second movie?

* EnforcedMethodActing: The scenes on board the Sulaco were filmed last, so that the actors playing the Colonial Marines would have had time to build up a realistic rapport with one another over the course of shooting.

* TheOtherMarty: James Remar was originally cast as Cpl. Hicks, but James Cameron had him replaced with Michael Biehn shortly after shooting began. A few shots of Remar, mostly from behind, still made it into the movie.

->'''Ripley:''' Just tell me one thing, Burke. You're going out there to destroy them, right? Not to study. Not to bring back. But to wipe them out.
->'''Burke:''' That's the plan. You have my word on it.
->'''Ripley:''' All right, I'm in.

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