History Film / Aliens

** Hudson may be inclined to panic when faced with being stranded on a hostile world with little ammunition, but when the cards are down, he's not one to go down without a fight.

* DeathOfAChild: Newt's brother is outright stated to be dead, other children are shown in an early scene at the colony, and it's confirmed that families live on the planet -- telling us that other children died during the attack, too.

* DoesntLikeGuns: Bishop hands back the pistol he's given without comment and proceeds on his solo mission unarmed. This implies he thinks one handgun would be useless against a xenomorph, or he really is ThreeLawsCompliant as he claims (taking a weapon would deprive the human survivors of needed defense).

* DoNotGoGentle: Gorman and Vasquez fight to the death against the aliens.

* OrphanedReference: The scene where Ripley confronts Burke about being responsible for the death of the colonists doesn't make a lot of sense in the Theatrical Cut due to its context (a member of the company ''deliberately'' sent the colonists looking for the derelict ship where the Alien eggs were laid) only being previously discussed in a deleted scene. Nowhere else in the film does it explore ''why'' the colony was attacked and it's implied that Ripley (and hence the Marines) believe that it was only a matter of time due to the invasive nature of the Xenomorphs. The Extended Edition available for home viewing reinserts the scene which helps the viewer understand what Ripley is talking about. Most of the other deleted (and later reinserted) scenes are unnecessary to understand the plot and themes, so it's a little strange that their wasn't a quick reshoot or at least a brief ADR to explain this plot point.

** Vasquez and Gorman blowing themselves up was a good idea at the time, but only if they had waited about 30 seconds before Newt got up the ladder first.

** While a handful of films released around this time were beginning to embrace the KidSidekick and TagalongKid tropes (most notably ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' two years earlier), ''Aliens'' was actively subverting it via the Newt character. While most kid characters simply existed to be rescued or provide witty comebacks, Newt is the only one of the group who fully understands the danger on LV-426. She listens to commands and follows them, has a wry sense of humor at times, and at one point, Ripley and the others defer to her judgement (in the maintenance ducts after fleeing from the attack on Medical). All this for a kid who's no more than 10-years-old.

** The explosion of the Atmospheric Processing Facility. Ripley's concerns about using heavy ammo around the reactor's coolant system are right on the monney. But Gorman's failure to explain this to the team when he issues his orders means several of the Marines naturally ignored him and keep their ammo. So, when the Xenomorphs attack, out come the bullets and instant damage to critical systems ensues. Combine the firefight with the additional damaged caused by the Dropship crash (on top of nobody servicing the Station for at least weeks once the Colonists were overrun) and something like this was inevitibile.

** Hicks shooting down Vasquez's suggestion to deploy CN-20 nerve gas against the Xenomorph nest after most of the Marines are slaughtered. While he concedes it's worth a try, Hicks also rightly points out that they have no idea if CN-20 will affect Xenomorph physiology or not. This is quite justified, as the only real knowledge the team has of said physiology comes from what little Ripley and the ''Nostromo'' crew were able to discover in the previous film (in addition to the Marines having just seen their resiliency firsthand in the Atmospheric Processing Facility). So going back into the Nest to deploy the CN-20 -- a weapon they can't garuntee will work -- with their depleted numbers would be a garunteed SuicideMission and it's thus too risky.

* PracticalEffects: The power loader, the First Acheron Queen (and her gigantic ovipositor), the ChestBursters, Bishop's severed torso, all done without the aid of CGI. And it is ''glorious''. It really is. The special effects in this movie stand up with the best CGI of today. It's rather amazing how well it's aged.

* OneBookAuthor: Creator/CarrieHenn, who played Newt, never made another movie. Her parents very wisely invested the money she made from ''Aliens'', and she decided that she didn't want to be an actor and became a teacher. Carrie does make the occasional appearance at conventions though, and she and Sigourney Weaver still keep in contact.

** Ripley goes on a rampage against the Ovomorphs, and she wastes nearly all of her ammo while doing so, and this leaves her almost nothing to defend herself and Newt with against the now ''very'' angry Queen once the Ovomorphs would have all been destroyed in the impending explosion anyway.

* InformedAttribute: The M41A Pulse rifles are said to fire 10x24mm caseless ammunition, but when they fire, they can be clearly seen ejecting empty shell casings.

* ForScience: Bishop's role interest in the facehugger is to study it. [[spoiler:He has no interest in taking one home.]]

* DefiantToTheEnd: "[[ClusterFBomb Fuck you! Fuck you! AND FUCK YOU TOO!!!!]]" Exit ]Hudson.

** Played straight by the Xenomorphs themselves. There were 157 colonists. At least one died before being cocooned (the one they tried to get a facehugger off of), one wasn't caught at all (Newt), and one didn't produce a chestburster until the Marines were watching. That makes 154 xenomorphs at absolute maximum, including the Queen -- and that's assuming both that every other colonist was captured alive and cocooned, and that it was done without killing off a single Xenomorph.[[note]]The huge acid-melted hole through several floors of the colony implies ''someone'' bagged one of Ripley's bad guys.[[/note]] How many got killed by the Marines? Plenty, in fights we see. The sentry guns alone must have plowed down dozens if not more. But they never stop coming. It is later ''mostly'' averted when you realize during the penultimate showdown that there was only token resistance when Ripley entered the hive to save Newt as most of them had been already been killed, no more than 7 Xenomorphs not including the Queen try to attack Ripley during the rescue. The one exception to this is when Ripley and Hicks are attempting to escape, and there appear to be something like 30-50 aliens following them.

* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: The fusion reactor's malfunction would only cause a lot of superheated plasma that would quickly disperse, not a nuclear explosion -- fusion reactions are devilishly hard to create and sustain, and once the conditions are compromised, the reaction goes "phut!" and dies. It'd cause a ''conventional'' explosion that you probably wouldn't want to be in the vicinity of, but it probably wouldn't even bring down the atmosphere processor, let alone level everything within 30km [[note]]Then again, we've never gotten [[RealityIsUnrealistic nuclear fusion to work]] properly, so. There are also very few details given about what kind of reactor it is or how it works, plus the company is known for being cheap and considering people expendable, so it's unlikely that any expense was put into safety.

** The script and other supportive material specify that the ''Sulaco'' travels faster in space and took three weeks to reach LV-426, avoiding headscratchers about how long Newt had to survive alone when the first movie established that the ''Nostromo'' would've taken about ten months to reach the Earth from there (then again, the ''Sulaco'' isn't hauling around millions upon millions of tons of refinery either).

* ActionizedSequel[=/=]SequelEscalation: ''Film/{{Alien}}'' was a horror/suspense movie. Cameron thought ''Alien'' was so well done that he decided to carry on the story in a completely different way -- by adding a few Marines, some {{BFG}}s, and a hell of a lot more Xenomorphs.

* ActionGirl: Ellen Ripley [[TookALevelInBadass graduates to one]]. Although she doesn't possess any particular combat skills, she still has the guts and determination to survive.

* ActorAllusion: Jenette Goldstein (who played Private Vasquez) originally thought ''Aliens'' was going to be a drama about immigration and showed up to audition wearing short skirt and high heels. This incident was directly referred to in a crack Hudson makes about Vasquez during the briefing.

** The script and other supportive material specify that the ''Sulaco'' travels faster in space and took three weeks to reach LV-426, avoiding headscratchers about how long Newt had to survive alone when the first movie established that the ''Nostromo'' would've taken about ten months to reach the Earth from there.

* AmmunitionConservation: As mentioned under "Bottomless Magazines," the Marines end up with about one half-mag each, and by the climax, they scrape together one full mag plus change for Ripley to [[StormingTheCastle storm the hive with]]. It even provides the page quote.

** The Marines mention having sex with things called "Arcturians" with Frost mentioning that even if the one he slept with was male, it wouldn't matter because it's Arcturian. This is a shout out to the highly influential comic story ''ComicBook/TheLongTomorrow'' by Dan O'Bannion and Moebius (who would both be vital crew on the first ''Alien'' film) where Arcturians are StarfishAliens that double as a VoluntaryShapeshifter. One tells the hero he could take any form that pleases the hero, even the hero himself if that's what he's into.

* SmartGun: The M56 Smart Gun comes with a lot of nifty features, most prominent being the servo-harness which makes it easier to carry, operate, and links to targeting processor.

** Corporal Hicks becomes able to authorize a nuclear attack thanks to alien-caused attrition in the higher ranks, though the company lieutenant was only wounded, not killed, in an incident precipitated by his own ineptitude. When he's up and around again, Lt. Gorman seems to acknowledge his failure of command, allowing Hicks to continue calling the shots.

* RareGuns: The Colonial Marines' standard sidearm is the H&K [=VP70=]. In this case the [=VP70=] was chosen due to both its futuristic appearance and its rarity; not only does it look the part, but the odds of the audience recognizing it as a (then) 15-year-old handgun were pretty slim.

* NecessaryWeasel: The colonists have been {{terraform}}ing [=LV-426=]. This avoids the necessity for the actors to run about in cumbersome spacesuits, which were needed just to walk on the surface in the previous movie.