History Film / Aliens

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: While one Company exec is skeptically dissecting Ripley's account of the ''Nostromo''[='s=] fate, another seated behind her is slumped back in his chair, sleeping. The sharp-eyed viewer can also see another exec doing crosswords under the table.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: While one Company exec is skeptically dissecting Ripley's account of the ''Nostromo''[='s=] fate, another seated behind her is slumped back in his chair, sleeping.

* LastNameBasis: Through most of the film. Ripley and Hicks eventually progress to FirstNameBasis near the end, just before Ripley assaults the alien hive to rescue Newt.

* BigDamnHeroes: The moment when Ripley drives the Armored Personnel Carrier through the wall of the Xenomorph hive to save the remaining Marines trying to escape is the biggest example of this in the main series.

* BreakTheBadass: Hudson gives a long BadassBoast to Ripley about how well-equipped and badass he and the rest of the Colonial Marines are. After the [[CurbStompBattle catastrophic first encounter with the aliens]], Hudson is reduced to a [[HeroicBSOD shell-shocked wreck]].

* ChainSawGripBFG: A pretty well {{justified|Trope}} example: The M56 is mounted on a large harness with a HeadsUpDisplay and several automated targeting systems. The rounds themselves are fairly low-mass, limiting recoil, and most of the bulk of the weapon system is harness.

** It's subtle, but the Alien Queen seems to be having one when Ripley confronts her using the power loader. She doesn't attack right away and keeps her distance because as a Xenomorph Queen, she's never been in a fight (that's what her Drones are for) and Ripley's found a way to even the playing field. Notice that when she finally charges Ripley, she doesn't do it head-on, but instead keeps her head and upper torso angled away from power loader as if she knows she's about to get hit and hard at that.

* DoomedTacticalTeam: The Marines arguably codified the trope, being supposedly highly trained soldiers who quickly become CannonFodder.

!!''Aliens'' contains examples of the following tropes:

* AirVentPassageWay

-->'''Ripley''': They grab the colonists, they move them over there and they immobilize them to be hosts for more of these. Which would mean that there would have to be a lot of these parasites, right? One for each colonist. That's over a hundred at least.\\
'''Bishop''': Yes, that follows.\\
'''Ripley''': But each one of these things comes from an egg, right? So who's laying these eggs? ''[there's a long pause]''\\
'''Bishop''': I'm not sure. It must be something we haven't seen yet.

* AmmunitionConservation: As mentioned under "Bottomless Magazines," the Marines end up with about one half-mag each. It even provides the page quote.

* AncestralWeapon: Hicks' shotgun. According to the novelisation, it's been in his family since the Vietnam War.

* AnthropicPrinciple: Had the atmosphere processor [[ChekhovsVolcano not started to overload]], necessitating the survivors instead escape LV-426 within several hours, they would have tried to wait ''[[WeJustNeedToWaitForRescue 17 days for a rescue]]'', consequently getting wiped out by the now-enraged hive (an irate Hudson pointed this much out to Ripley [[JerkassHasAPoint they would never survive that long]]).

** Hicks remarks that Lieutenant Gorman is 'too good to eat with the rest of us grunts' as a means of establishing Gorman is out of touch with and stands apart from his men. Officers don't mess with enlisted men. At least, Gorman is not doing anything an actual Marine would consider out of the ordinary.[[note]]It's not uncommon for a newly commissioned officer to do things like eat with their troops in an attempt to build camaraderie, but it is frowned upon. In fact, most enlisted personnel would be suspicious of an officer that ''did'' try to join them in the chow hall (outside of a special occasion like a birthday or holiday where the unit as a whole is together) for fear that the officer is trying to get them into trouble for something.[[/note]]

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Nobody cried when a xenomorph mauled Burke, because he was the one who tricked the colonists into investigating the alien starship. As a result, all of them were killed except for Newt.]]
** [[spoiler:Paul Reiser said in an interview that he knew he had played a complete asshole when at the movie's premiere ''his own parents'' enthusiastically agreed that his character deserved the violent death he received.]]

** Hudson attempts one that even uses the word "badass" as often as he can. He does not deal well with the loss of the high-tech gear that he describes in said boast. [[spoiler:He does go down shooting while spitting out even more 'heat of battle' boasts, as well. An alien has to ambush him from below to take him down.]]

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Hicks promises Ripley that he will "do us both" if they were hopelessly cornered by the Xenomorphs, but it actually doesn't ever come to that, and they live through the entire film.

* BigBad[=/=]LargeAndInCharge: The Queen who appears near the end of the film, has total dominion over her countless Drone subjects, and is also in fact even larger and stronger than a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' easily counts as a dual-example of both of these tropes at once.

* BigNo: Vasquez gives one when Drake gets immolated.

** Ripley does this earlier when she dreams that she has been impregnated.

* BodyHorror: The Xenomorph lifecycle features one of the most infamous examples in film history.

* BookEnds: The film starts and ends with a spaceship silently drifting into space as its crew rests in artificial sleep -- the same as the first film, in fact.

** One of the colonist hosts says "Kill me…", referencing a deleted scene in the first film in which Ripley encounters Dallas and Brett being made into more Ovomorphs.
** A subtle one (since it's a blink-and-you-miss it in the first film), there was also corn bread for breakfast on the ''Nostromo''.

* CatapultNightmare

* ChainSawGripBFG: A pretty well [[JustifiedTrope justified]] example: The M56 is mounted on a large harness with a HeadsUpDisplay and several automated targetting systems. The rounds themselves are fairly low-mass, limiting recoil, and most of the bulk of the weapon system is harness.

** It is established through dialogue in the apartment scene with Burke and Gorman that Ripley has a license to operate heavy vehicles at the docks. It comes in handy when she uses the APC to rescue the Marines fleeing the hive under the atmosphere processor.
** In the extended cut we see Newt and the other children playing games throughout the complex, including in all sorts of places that they weren't supposed to go. Her knowledge of the ventilation system comes in quite handy later on.

* CollapsingLair: After Ripley sets the xenomorph queen on fire, the atmosphere processor starts to collapse due to ExplosiveOverclocking and finally blows up in a nuclear detonation.

** Ripley doesn't recognize the Xenomorph engineering inside the atmosphere processor, and this is because she never went into the Derelict. The novelization has her recognizing something familiar about it, because the novelization of ''Alien'' included the DeletedScene where she finds Dallas and Brett imprisoned within new Ovomorphs.
** Also in the novelization, the CaptainsLog Ripley is dictating at the end of the first movie has been erased, and at one point, Ripley accuses Burke of having done it to cover up the Weyland-Yutani Coorporation's involvement.

* ContinuousDecompression: When the Xenomorph Queen is ThrownOutTheAirlock during the FinalBattle, and if it wasn't for Bishop, the decompression would have sucked out Newt to her death.

* CryoSickness: Ripley speds a week in the hospital for her 50-year long hypersleep. The {{novelization}} notes that she just squeaked by on an outright Cryonics Failure, as after 60 years, she would have died.

*** However, it should be noted that after initial chaos, they ''did'' manage to reorganize, regroup, and [[CurbStompCushion fight back]], killing quite a lot of aliens in the process. When Ripley pulled out her [[BigDamnHeroes Big Damn Heroes]] moment, they were in the middle of organized retreat, with Hicks helping out Hudson, while Vasquez and Drake covered their backs, killing any alien that tried to come close.

* DangerouslyLoadedCargo: Lt. Gorman, the commanding officer of the Marines for the mission, gets knocked out by some falling cargo aboard the [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] while Ripley is driving it recklessly to rescue the surviving Marines after their first foray into the hive. With [[SergeantRock Sgt. Apone]] falling in the hive, [[YouAreInCommandNow Cpl. Hicks]] is left in charge. He gladly defers to [[ActionSurvivor Ripley]], thanks to her prior experience with the titular creatures. She orders the site to be [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure nuked from orbit]], much to [[SuitWithVestedInterests Burke's]] dismay, setting off the second act plot of [[spoiler:Burke attempting to smuggle aliens back inside of Ripley and Newt]]. Quite the chain of events thanks to one unsecured container.

* DegradedBoss: A notable non-video-game example where in which the Xenomorph Drones all get this treatment due to them now facing off against vastly more powerful and therefore deadlier weaponry than "Big Chap" aka "Kane's Son" ever faced off against during the events of the first film; however, the Alien Queen still easily serves as the one big FinalBoss for Ellen Ripley during the film's extremely famous PostClimaxConfrontation aboard the USS ''Sulaco'' between the two of them.

'''Ripley:''' ''(takes a breath)'' I'm happy to disappoint you.

* DoomedTacticalTeam: The Marines arguably codified the trope, being supposedly highly-trained soldiers who quickly become CannonFodder.

** In the extended cut, Hudson is the one who first theorizes the possible existence of a xenomorph queen.

* DyingDeclarationOfHate: "You always were an asshole, Gorman", although it's said with an ItHasBeenAnHonor tone, as she joins him in gripping the grenade. This is most likely because Gorman came back to try and rescue Vasquez when she was wounded, and is about to lose his life for doing so.

* EnemyRisingBehind: The abduction of Newt and the xenomorph rising up behind Burke in Medical.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Bishop's [[FiveFingerFillet first scene]] [[RoboticReveal reveals him as a robot]]. It also serves double for Hudson by highlighting his tendency to freak out when things go poorly.
** Burke condescendingly referring to Ripley as "kiddo" even as he explains that she's technically half a century older than him, stating that he works for the Company, "but don't let that fool you, I'm really an okay guy." Seemingly a little too keen to be thought of as okay. . .

** The moment she gets out of cryo, Vasquez is at the bar doing chin-ups while her fellow Marines are mostly still groggy, and [[InsultBackfire demolishes Hudson]] the moment he tries to make a sexist insult about her looks.

** Frost's armor is decorated with a heart-and-arrow, with the name "Heath" in it.
*** In this case, "Heath" is actually short for Frost's actor's girlfriend at the time, whose name was Heather.

** The first scene on the ''Sulaco'' has all the Marines waking up from cryosleep in underwear. Notably in the first film, Kane was wearing a vest. In this film, everyone except Burke is shirtless.

** After the dropship rescues Ripley and Newt, a blast sends it hurling sideways into the wall before Bishop regains control. As he retracts the landing legs, some of the wreckage is pulled in with them. The Queen Alien apparently used the opportunity to jump into the landing leg well.
** Ripley confronts Burke about not even mentioning Bishop's presence as an android aboard the ''Sulaco'' despite having heard her version of the events that transpired aboard the ''Nostromo.'' Burke sincerely admits he just didn't think to mention it. It's an early sign of [[spoiler: his lack of consideration for other people, in particular their pain and suffering, as well as his general untrustworthiness.]]

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: While one Company exec is skeptically dissecting Ripley's account of the ''Nostromo's'' fate, another seated behind her is slumped back in his chair, sleeping.

* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Bishop gets torn in half by the Alien Queen near the end. In a rare example of this trope, he lives. This also happens to Ferro, the dropship pilot, although she doesn't fare as well as Bishop did.

* IdiotBall: The ending confrontation could be completely averted if only Ripley killed the immobilized Queen instead of shooting her visibly not vital hatching organ -- or at least not wasted her ammo on xenomorph eggs (which would be evaporated along with the colony anyway), so she could kill her in the corridor chase later. Even if she expected the Queen not to be able to chase her and Newt, she had no guarantee that more xenomorphs wouldn't ambush them during escape. She left herself basically without any weapon to defend herself.

-> '''Ripley:''' How long was I out there?\\

* JumpScare: James Horner's masterful use of the screeching violin ScareChord is demonstrated in the following nerve-shattering moments

--> '''Ripley:''' They cut the power.
--> '''Hudson:''' What do you mean ''they'' cut the power? How could they cut the power, man? They're animals!

* MeaningfulEcho: Newt mimics the Marines saying "affirmative" a few times. In the end as Ripley is about to put her into the hypersleep -– specifically saying "sweet dreams" –- Newt responds "affirmative."

* MeaningfulName: The noble, nonviolent, and self-sacrificing android is called "Bishop." His name beginning with the letter B also implies he is an advancement over Ash in the first film; certainly true from a moral standpoint.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Averted. Two females and two males survive the expedition (that is, if you count [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Bishop]] as male.) The Marine party has at least three women, and all of them die, in addition to the colonist woman we see get chestbursted. The only non-civilian to survive is Hicks (a man.)

* NoKillLikeOverkill: Hudson's marksmanship is built around this belief. Just watch how many bullets he pours into a single facehugger.

-->'''Ripley''': How long after we're declared overdue can we expect a rescue?\\
'''Hicks''': Seventeen days.\\
'''Hudson''': Seventeen days? Hey, man, I don't wanna rain on your parade, but we're not gonna last seventeen hours!
* NoNewFashionsInTheFuture: Ripley and Burke's outfits scream 80's, with Creator/SigourneyWeaver's curly hair and Paul Reiser's bad perm getting special notice. Conversely, the business suits all have turned-up collars.

* NoOSHACompliance: The building complex on LV-426 does have handrails, but they are only thigh-high, and result in at least one Colonial Marine falling over and plummeting through the floors of an atmosphere processor.

* NoodleIncident: The Arcturians that the Marines talk about.

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind

* NothingIsScarier: Despite being more focused on action, the film gets in on this. The Xenomorphs aren't even seen until over an hour into the film; before that the Marines are exploring the deserted colony, waiting to encounter them at any moment.

* OhCrap: Ripley discovers that not only are there colonists on LV-426, they have their families with them, too.

* OneLiner: Being a traditional 80's action film, it features quite a few:

* OutrunTheFireball
** The dropship barely escaping the nuclear detonation on [=LV-426=]. They actually have plenty of time to escape (twenty six minutes), but Ripley [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind refuses to leave without Newt]].
** Also everyone running out of the way of the crashing dropship, which explodes into flame and rolls right between them.
* ParentalSubstitute: Part of what makes the film so touching is Ripley's 'adoption' of Newt. Ripley, being frozen for 50+ years, lost her daughter, and Newt's family were killed by the xenomorphs, so the two fill the empty spaces in each other's lives. Newt actually calls Ripley "Mommy" by the end of the film.

** Burke not only helps Ripley rescue the Marines and prepare the defences he goes to help Hudson after he's been wounded.

* PoorCommunicationKills: In all fairness, Ripley makes a terrible attempt at describing the Xenomorphs to the Marines, though it's likely justified since some of her recollections might have been affected by post-traumatic stress.
** After being alerted to the risk of damaging the reactor coolant equipment with gunfire, Gorman orders the Marines to unload their weapons and give all of their ammo to one guy to carry, leaving them with flamethrowers only. Not being told ''why'' they were doing this, and [[EnsignNewbie having rather little faith in their commander's abilities]], most of the Marines (notably the machine gunners) keep some ammo on them and end up shooting up the coolant equipment anyway as soon as the fighting starts.
*** In the novelization, Hicks explicitly states that his old shotgun "probably won't penetrate far enough to set off any mushrooms", indicating that there is understanding of why the order is being given.

* PoweredArmor: The Power-Loader Ripley 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 Marines in the film do not seem to have one in their armory.
** The Power Loader is designed almost exactly like a traditional forklift, just with legs instead of wheels. It actually looks like it is very well designed to protect its operator when it's being used in situations it's designed for (loading cargo, where a typical accident will be a bunch of heavy stuff falling). This particular model is definitely not designed for any type of military/combat use though.

* PuzzleBoss: The Queen can be seen as a [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example of this trope since her final defeat still involves her getting [[ThrownOutTheAirlock thrown out of the ''USS Sulaco's'' main floor airlock]] during the film's famous PostClimaxConfrontation as already mentioned above, but unlike with "Big Chap" aka "Kane's Son" some fifty-seven years before her, the presence of the P-5000-Powered-Work-Loader still allows Ellen Ripley to directly physically engage her massive opponent before then.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Subverted. Burke is the only authority figure to sympathize with Ripley and comes across as a fair and reasonable person… until TheReveal.

* SacrificialLion: Practically the whole entire squad of Space Marines, even though the Xenomorphs are obviously up against far more serious opposition this time around when compared to "Big Chap" aka "Kane's Son" some 57 years before them, and Ripley tries to reassure Newt by telling her that she is now protected by Space Marines, but just as Newt initially predicts, it doesn't make any difference for any of them at all.
* SalvagePirates: In the opening, Ripley's escape shuttle from the first movie is found by a deep-space salvage crew, who express disappointment at finding her [[Main/HumanPopsicle alive]], as "there goes our salvage, boys". Averted in that they don't consider killing her and salvaging the shuttle anyways.

* SentryGun: A mini-plotline in the director's cut features the Marines barricading a main hallway and setting up four auto turrets at key locations in two pairs. The first pair fails to hold back the incoming waves of Xenomorph Drones, but the second pair finally convinces them to look for another means to reach the humans within… after being drained to ten rounds in one gun.

** Bishop tries to assure Ripley that he isn't dangerous by explaining that his programming won't allow it. His explanation is a near-verbatim reading of Creator/IsaacAsimov's famous [[ThreeLawsCompliant first law of robotics: 'A robot cannot harm a human, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm'.]]
-->'''Bishop''': It is impossible for me to harm, or through omission of action allow to be harmed, a human being.

** There are two 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 adagio 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 is a reference to ''Film/TheShining''. This same tricycle was seen in ''Film/TheTerminator'', and again in ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''.

* SmallGirlBigGun: Private Vasquez is played by a 5'3 actress and wields a 40-pound machine gun.

* StayFrosty: Hicks says this to Hudson and Vasquez. Ironically Private Frost (who's referred to as 'Frosty' at one point) has already been killed, so this could be TemptingFate.

--> '''Hicks:''' We waste him. [[IronicEcho No offense.]]

* ThrownOutTheAirlock: The Alien Queen is disposed of by ejecting her right out into space.

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

* TradingBarsForStripes: Drake and Vazquez.

* UnbuiltTrope: The film is credited with kick-starting the gritty, grizzled SpaceMarine trope that's permeated science fiction and popular culture for decades afterwards. It's easy to forget then that the Colonial Marines in ''Aliens'' are portrayed as arrogant, trigger-happy jarheads who, despite their overwhelming confidence, had never faced anything even remotely like the Xenomorphs, and suffered for it. It's not a display of badassery so much as it is a sci-fi version of 'Nam. Furthermore, the only Marine who survived the ordeal was the one who followed the orders of Ellen Ripley, who is not only a civilian but also a woman and the main character, something rare even today in similar genres. The only other survivor is Bishop, who's probably one of the [[NiceGuy nicest people]] in the entire series. The final confrontation is between two {{Mama Bear}}s, Ripley and the Queen, completely counter to the hyper-masculine narratives permeating the versions that followed.

** Ripley barbecuing the eggs and then pretty much emptying her pulse rifle into the Queen's chamber (bullets ''and'' grenades) also qualifies as this.
* UnresolvedSexualTension:
** Hicks, the only surviving Marine, flirts with Ripley while [[HandsOnApproach teaching her to use a pulse rifle]] (Ripley even strokes the grenade launcher pump rather suggestively). 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. He defuses the situation by remarking that it doesn't mean they're engaged now, and Ripley puts it on herself.
** When Ripley leaves an injured Hicks on the dropship to go get Newt [[FirstNameBasis they exchange first names]].

** 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. Maybe even the ''entire series''.
*** Not just in the novelization. She makes it clear in the film that she's leaving him on Earth too.
---->'''Ripley:''' And you, you little shithead, are staying here.

* YouAreInCommandNow[=/=] StillTheLeader:

** Gorman does get one last opportunity to let his higher rank shine; during their desperate escape attempt in the vents, Vasquez gets injured, and Gorman -- who even before this was finally starting to show some competence -- firmly orders Hicks on while he goes back to help Vasquez. Hicks obeys without hesitation.

'''Newt:''' Aye-ffirmative.

* BigBad[=/=]LargeAndInCharge: The First Acheron Queen who appears near the end of the film, has total dominion over her countless Drone subjects, and is also in fact even larger and stronger than a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' easily counts as a dual-example of both of these tropes at once.

* MadeOfIron: Ripley's leg must be stronger than the power loader's, considering how the First Acheron Queen grabs hold of her ankle ''[[ContinuousDecompression while the airlock is open]]'' and somehow Ripley's leg isn't torn off.

* MamaBear: The last half-hour deals with Ripley defending Newt from the Xenomorphs and the First Acheron Queen defending her eggs from Ripley.

* MechVsBeast: Ripley uses the powerloader to go toe-to-toe with the First Acheron Queen.

* MonsterDelay: Somewhat [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggerated]] in this film in that the Ovomorphs, the adult Xenomorph Drones, and the First Acheron Queen all take awfully long periods of time to finally show up on-screen for the first time, especially so in the latter-most specimen's case, but the {{FaceHugger}}s, however, actually show up on-screen far earlier in this film than the one that impregnated Kane during the [[Film/{{Alien}} first film]] ever did.

* NeckLift: Ripley does this to the First Acheron Queen during their fight using the mechanical arm of the cargo loader she's strapped into.

** The First Acheron Queen was suspended high and above the ground by a strange apparatus to allow her to use her ovipositor; however, it rendered her immovable. Throwing the bandolier of grenades into the fire not only didn't hurt her but it also destroyed the apparatus, allowing her to move freely once she tore free of her now shredded ovipositor.

* NotQuiteDead: The First Acheron Queen, who did not die in the nuclear detonation but found her way onto the dropship, leading into the TakeAMomentToCatchYourDeath scene.

* PostClimaxConfrontation: Much like in the first film, Ellen Ripley seemingly escapes any and all further danger following a massive explosion, only for the First Acheron Queen to brutally stab her dangerously barbed tail right on through the Bishop Android's torso and also even split him right in half and also for Ellen Ripley to have to throw the First Acheron Queen right on out of the USS ''Sulaco'''s main floor airlock using the power-loader.

* 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.

* PuzzleBoss: The First Acheron Queen can be seen as a [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example of this trope since her final defeat still involves her getting [[ThrownOutTheAirlock thrown out of the ''USS Sulaco's'' main floor airlock]] during the film's famous PostClimaxConfrontation as already mentioned above, but unlike with "Big Chap" aka "Kane's Son" some fifty-seven years before her, the presence of the P-5000-Powered-Work-Loader still allows Ellen Ripley to directly physically engage her massive opponent before then.

* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: {{Subverted}}. The First Acheron Queen hides on the dropship and suddenly [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impales]] Bishop with her tail. Though the dismemberment doesn't kill him, since he's an android, he's no longer a threat to the stowaway Queen.
* TakeAMomentToCatchYourDeath: When Ripley, Newt and Bishop step off the dropship after escaping LV-426, Ripley takes a moment to thank the android for saving her and the young girl. Bishop replies that he did do good... and then he gets ripped in half by the First Acheron Queen, who hitched a ride up with them.

* UnbuiltTrope: The film is credited with kick-starting the gritty, grizzled SpaceMarine trope that's permeated science fiction and popular culture for decades afterwards. It's easy to forget then that the Colonial Marines in ''Aliens'' are portrayed as arrogant, trigger-happy jarheads who, despite their overwhelming confidence, had never faced anything even remotely like the Xenomorphs, and suffered for it. It's not a display of badassery so much as it is a sci-fi version of 'Nam. Furthermore, the only Marine who survived the ordeal was the one who followed the orders of Ellen Ripley, who is not only a civilian but also a woman and the main character, something rare even today in similar genres. The only other survivor is Bishop, who's probably one of the [[NiceGuy nicest people]] in the entire series. The final confrontation is between two {{Mama Bear}}s, Ripley and the First Acheron Queen, completely counter to the hyper-masculine narratives permeating the versions that followed.

* DoomedTacticalTeam: The Marines arguably codified the trope.

''Aliens'' (1986) is the second film in the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' film series, starring Creator/SigourneyWeaver. It was directed by Creator/JamesCameron, and [[ActionizedSequel shifted the theme]] from [[ActionHorror horror to action]], something Cameron would later apply to [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay the sequel]] to [[Film/TheTerminator one of his earlier films]].

''Aliens'' is widely regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi, horror, ''and'' action movies of all time. It's chock full of awesome moments and iconic scenes, and it gave birth to a fair number of the tropes which have since influenced modern media to a near-absurd degree -- and it did all this [[PracticalEffects without the aid of digital editing]]. It's also one of the few film sequels to be regarded as on par with the original, if not better. It also permanently redefined what female characters could do in science fiction/fantasy.

** Vasquez and Gorman blowing themselves up was a good idea at the time, but if only they had waited about 30 seconds before Newt got up the ladder first.
*** They didn't ''have'' thirty seconds...

* TheNeidermeyer: Lt. Gorman, who is unit commander InNameOnly. Sergeant Apone is the real commander of the unit, and when he dies, Gorman completely freezes up. He gets better... but it's unfortunately just before his demise.

* PetTheDog: In the midst of a serious situation, and trying to figure out how to survive, Hicks takes the time to lift Newt up onto the table so she can see the display that they are making defense plans with. Although possibly unintentional, this was a very wise thing to do, given her demonstrated expertise.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Usually used to establish how out-of-depth the Colonial Marines are when they meet the Xenomorphs. Lt. Gorman has only ever performed two ''real'' combat drops (including the current one he's leading), so when the SergeantRock is killed and circumstances get messy, he freezes and Ripley has to salvage the situation.
** Ripley wakes up 57 years after the loss of the ''USCSS Nostromo''. [[SoleSurvivor There is nobody else to corroborate her story]] about how a lethal alien monster with [[AcidAttack acid for blood]] killed the rest of the crew, and the Xenomorph was ThrownOutTheAirlock (some damage it caused to the escape pod being the only evidence of it ever being there). The planet where the Xenomorph was encountered in her story has been colonised for twenty-two years and nobody there has ever reported encountering any living thing matching the creature's description. [[SarcasmMode Surprisingly]], the WY executives do not take her testimony seriously one bit. Instead they chalk it all up to an industrial accident and revoke her flight licence.
** Hicks shooting down Vasquez's suggestion to deploy CN-20 nerve gas against the Xenomorph hive 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 ''USCSS 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 guaranteed SuicideMission and it's thus too risky.
** The explosion of the Atmospheric Processing Facility. Ripley's concerns about using heavy ammo around the reactor's coolant system are right on the money, but Gorman's failure to explain this to the team when he issues his orders means several of the Marines naturally ignore him and keep their ammo. So when the Xenomorphs attack, out come the bullets and instant damage to critical systems ensues (if he'd explained his reasoning, they might have at least been more careful where they were aiming). Combine the firefight with the additional damage caused by the Dropship crash (on top of nobody servicing the Station for at least several weeks once the Colonists were overrun) and something like this was inevitable.

** Usually used to establish how out-of-depth the Colonial Marines are when they meet the xenomorphs. Lt. Gorman has only ever performed two ''real'' combat drops (including the current one he is leading), so when the SergeantRock is killed and circumstances get messy, he freezes and Ripley has to salvage the situation.
** Ripley wakes up 57 years after the loss of the ''Nostromo''. [[SoleSurvivor There is nobody else to corroborate her story]] about how a lethal alien monster with acid for blood killed the rest of the crew, and the Xenomorph was ThrownOutTheAirlock (some damage it caused to the escape pod being the only evidence of it ever being there). The planet where the Xenomorph was encountered in her story has been colonised for twenty-two years and nobody there has ever reported encountering any living thing matching the creature's description. [[SarcasmMode Surprisingly]], the WY executives do not take her testimony seriously one bit. Instead they chalk it all up to an industrial accident and revoke her flight licence.
** 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 guaranteed SuicideMission and it's thus too risky.
** The explosion of the Atmospheric Processing Facility. Ripley's concerns about using heavy ammo around the reactor's coolant system are right on the money. But Gorman's failure to explain this to the team when he issues his orders means several of the Marines naturally ignore him and keep their ammo. So, when the Xenomorphs attack, out come the bullets and instant damage to critical systems ensues (if he'd explained his reasoning, they might have at least been more careful where they were aiming). Combine the firefight with the additional damage caused by the Dropship crash (on top of nobody servicing the Station for at least several weeks once the Colonists were overrun) and something like this was inevitibile.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: Subverted. The Alien Queen hides on the dropship and suddenly [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impales]] Bishop with her tail. Though the dismemberment doesn't kill him, since he's an android, he's no longer a threat to the stowaway Queen.
* TakeAMomentToCatchYourDeath: When Ripley, Newt and Bishop step off the dropship after escaping LV-426, Ripley takes a moment to thank the android for saving her and the young girl. Bishop replies that he did do good... [[spoiler:and then he gets ripped in half by the xenomorph queen, who hitched a ride up with them.]]

** When [[spoiler:Vasquez and Gorman]] are trapped in the AirVentPassageWay, their [[HeroicSacrifice suicide via hand grenade]] takes out several aliens.

* NoSenseOfDistance: The colony and atmosphere processor seems ''absurdly'' huge given that there are only ~140 colonists on the planet. The marines have to travel to several different parts of the facility by flying there from their dropship. In a later scene, when Ripley is gearing up to go save Newt, an exterior shot shows Bishop flying the dropship a great distance from one part of the colony to another. Apparently, the alien who nabbed Newt sprinted for tens of miles in just a few minutes.

* JumpScare: James Horner's masterful use of the screeching violin ScareChord is demonstrated in the following three nerve-shattering moments

* DwindlingParty: The Marines.
** [[spoiler:Dietrich: Grabbed by a xenomorph from behind.]]
** [[spoiler:Frost: Set on fire when Dietrich is grabbed, which causes her to trigger her flamethrower, and falls to his death.]]
** [[spoiler:Crowe: Blown into a wall when the ammunition bag Frost was carrying and set on fire by Dietrich explodes, breaking his neck.]]
** [[spoiler:Wierzbowski: Killed offscreen by a xenomorph.]]
** [[spoiler:Apone: Grabbed by a xenomorph during the initial exchange.]]
** [[spoiler:Drake: Covered in acidic xenomorph blood when Vasquez shoots an alien next to him.]]
** [[spoiler:Ferro and Spunkmeyer: Killed by a xenomorph on the dropship, it's unclear who was killed first.]]
** [[spoiler:Hudson: Pulled through the floor by a xenomorph.]]
** [[spoiler:Vasquez and Gorman: Blow themselves up in the air shafts when trapped by the xenomorphs, cutting off the xenomorphs from the rest of the survivors.]]

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Bishop at the end.]] He gets impaled from behind by [[spoiler:the Alien Queen]] who hid on the dropship.
* ImpliedLoveInterest