History Fridge / Aliens

[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
* A kind of dark example. The Xenomorph Queen revealing herself to be on the ''Sulaco'' by attacking Bishop is essentially a chess pun: ''Queen takes Bishop''. Clever.

*** Also, Hudson stated “four more weeks and out” after the survivors realize the atmosphere processor took damage and that it’s going to explode. So, taking into account that messages reach Earth in two weeks, and the three day buffer before being declared overdue, one can only assume that the space travel time itself is two weeks, accounting for Hudson’s “four more weeks and out” comment. So, they’d have to wait for roughly a month and a couple of days before rescue could arrive. That certainly puts Newt’s survival into perspective, especially since Ridley tells Hudson that Newt survived longer than the 17 days without weapons and training. Newt literally earned a [[TookaLevelinBadass Took a Level in Badass]] due to how long she was able to survive.

*** Also, Hudson stated “four more weeks and out” after the survivors realize the atmosphere processor took damage and that it’s going to explode. So, taking into account that messages reach Earth in two weeks, and the three day buffer before being declared overdue, one can only assume that the space travel time itself is two weeks, accounting for Hudson’s “four more weeks and out” comment. So, they’d have to wait for roughly a month and a couple of days before rescue cue arrive. That certainly puts Newt’s survival into perspective, especially since Ridley tells Hudson that Newt survived longer than the 17 days without weapons and training. Newt literally earned a [[TookaLevelinBadass Took a Level in Badass]] due to how long she was able to survive.

*** Also, Hudson stated “four more weeks and out” after the survivors realize the atmosphere processor took damage and that it’s going to explode. So, taking into account that messages reach Earth in two weeks, and the three day buffer before being declared overdue, one can only assume that the space travel time itself is two weeks, accounting for Hudson’s “four more weeks and out” comment. So, they’d have to wait for roughly a month and a couple of days before rescue cue arrive. That certainly puts Newt’s survive into perspective, especially since Ridley tells Hudson that Newt survived longer than the 17 days without weapons and training. Newt literally earned a [[TookaLevelinBadass Took a Level in Badass]] due to how long she was able to survive.

*** Also, Hudson stated “four more weeks and out” after the survivors realize the atmosphere processor took damage and that it’s going to explode. So, taking into account that messages reach Earth in two weeks, and the three day buffer before being declared overdue, one can only assume that the space travel time itself is two weeks, accounting for Hudson’s “four more weeks and out” comment. So, they’d have to wait for roughly a month and a couple of days before rescue cue arrive. That certainly puts Newt’s survive into perspective, especially since Ridley tells Hudson that Newt survived longer than the 17 days without weapons and training. Newt literally earned a [[TookaLevelinBadass Took a Level in Badass]] due to how long she was able to survive.

[[AC: Fridge Brilliance]]

[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* One platoon of Marines for a colony is alright, but what isn't alright is just having them being the entire crew of the huge ship they work on; there should be support personnel that stay behind on the ship while the Marines are conducting search and rescue on the surface! Also, having the entire crew be the platoon means that everyone goes to the planet and no one stays on board the warship in orbit! This becomes a plot point later on when everything goes to hell, the dropship gets destroyed, the transmitter to call the ship on the APC is mentioned as "wasted," and they need to use the colony transmitter to get the backup drop ship remotely flown down from the ''Sulaco''. So that means if the colony transmitter was destroyed/unusable too, the Marines would have been stuck on the surface of the planet awaiting the explosion from the overheated atmosphere re-processors as well as leaving empty a valuable US Colonial Marine starship in orbit over a planet!
** This whole situation can be explained by the fact that the company is footing the bill for the trip. Since we know they've still been trying to get a xenomorph for study, they may have purposely set up the Marines going in by having restrictions such as only being able to send one crew instead of two (considering the size of the ''Sulaco'', it would make sense that there was more than one group of people maintaining and controlling the ship), as well as selecting who would be leading the crew (this explains why Gorman, who only had one previous combat drop performed, was with the group. The company wanted someone who couldn't make the decisions and could easily be manipulated by Burke if the situation called for it). If Ripley hadn't been there, all of the Marine group would have been wiped out in the nest, and the processor of LV-426 wouldn't have been destroyed either (as it was Ripley's idea to nuke the site from orbit that Hicks agreed with, leading for the dropship to be called). They underfunded the mission, forcing the [=USCM=] to send one crew on the ''Sulaco'', with the intention of controlling the situation and increase the chances of getting an alien, as well as being able to see how well the xenos stand up against trained Marines.
*** By underfunding the mission and making all those other decisions that disadvantaged it, they were actually increasing the chances of the entire mission team ending up dead and not bringing an alien back.
*** However, even if the entire mission team gets killed, the colony and the xenomorphs would still be there and allow for the company to get their hands on a specimen. The entire team not reporting in could be enough of a clue for the company that xenos are there (rememeber, Ripley gave them the planet AND grid co-ordinates to the Derelict, and the mission team disappearing would confirm the possibility of the xenos being there). That means that the company could send a science ship out to get a specimen, all the while the [=USCM=] are scratching their heads and wondering what the hell happened and get another ship prepped to find out why they haven't received any word from the ''Sulaco''. In fact, this explains the ship in ''Film/Alien3'' and how they just so happen to be within range of Fiorina-161 with Michael Bishop on board. They were on their way to LV-426 well before the 17 days passed for the crew to be declared overdue. They could have suspected everyone was dead and the colony was still intact before they received the message from the prison planet.
* The facehugger attacking Ripley in the medlab neatly illustrates part of the genius of its attack mode. Since it implants embryos through the victim's mouth, which could be fairly easily foiled by just keeping one's mouth shut, the tail also wraps around the victim's neck; not just as a means to hold on but also to choke the prey, since an instinctive reaction, which we see from Ripley, is to begin gasping and ''open your mouth''. This gives the hugger the opportunity to give a FaceFullOfAlienWingWong and then it's all over bar the chestbursting.
* Burke trying to screw the others and escape on his own actually saves Ripley, Newt, and Hicks. If he hadn't fled and locked the doors behind him, the whole group would have retreated to the medical wing, only to get surrounded on both sides and wiped out. If they had not had to flee down the tunnels, the story would have ended in Medical with the Marines being overwhelmed.

* When in the nest, everyone is ordered to unload their weapons due to their ammo possibly causing damage to important equipment that could result in the atmosphere processor exploding. Vasquez and Drake counteracted the orders by using spare weapons clips that Vasquez was carrying, allowing for the smart guns to be used when the shit hits the fan and provided cover for the surviving marines to get to the APC. Had it not been for Vasquez and Drake being subordinate to the orders to give up their ammo, there's a good chance that all of them wouldn't have made it out of the nest alive.

** Pretty sure the line was actually, "How soon after we're overdue can we expect a rescue?" Given that Ripley expected to reach the Outer Rim (in the first movie) in about five weeks and hoped to be picked up by then, and this was in a shuttle, seventeen days may just be the travel time from the nearest military ship to the planet, due to faster/stronger engines. The question of how long it would take them to be declared overdue in the first place was not raised or answered.

*** However, even if the entire mission team gets killed, the colony and the xenomorphs would still be there and allow for the company to get their hands on a specimen. The entire team not reporting in could be enough of a clue for the company that xenos are there (rememeber, Ripley gave them the planet AND grid co-ordinates to the Derelict, and the mission team disappearing would confirm the possibility of the xenos being there. That means that the company could send a science ship out to get a specimen, all the while the [=USCM=] are scratching their heads and wondering what the hell happened and get another ship prepped to find out why they haven't received any word from the ''Sulaco''. In fact, this explains the ship in ''Film/Alien3'' and how they just so happen to be within range of Fiorina-161 with Michael Bishop on board. They were on their way to LV-426 well before the 17 days passed for the crew to be declared overdue. They could have suspected everyone was dead and the colony was still intact before they received the message from the prison planet.

*** However, even if the entire mission team gets killed, the colony and the xenomorphs would still be there and allow for the company to get their hands on a specimen. The entire team not reporting in could be enough of a clue for the company that xenos are there (rememeber, Ripley gave them the planet AND grid co-ordinates to the Derelict, and the mission team disappearing would confirm the possibility of the xenos being there. That means that the company could send a science ship out to get a specimen, all the while the [=USCM=] are scratching their heads and wondering what the hell happened and get another ship prepped to find out why they haven't received any word from the ''Sulaco''. In fact, this explains the ship in ''Film/Alien3'' and how they just so happen to be within range of Fiorina-161 with Michael Bishop on board. They were on their way to LV-426 well before the 17 days passed for the crew to be declared overdue. They could have suspected everyone was dead and the colony was still intact before they received the message from the prison planet.

*** However, even if the entire mission team gets killed, the colony and the xenomorphs would still be there and allow for the company to get their hands on a specimen. That means that the company could send a science ship out to get a specimen, all the while the [=USCM=] are scratching their heads and wondering what the hell happened and then send another ship out to find out why they haven't received any word from the ''Sulaco''.

*** However, even if the entire mission team gets killed, the colony and the xenomorphs would still be there and allow for the company to get their hands on a specimen. That means that the company could send a science ship out to get a specimen, all the while the [=USCM=] are scratching their heads and wondering what the hell happened and then send another ship out to find out why they haven't received any word from the ''Sulaco''.

*** However, it would be enough of a confirmation to the company that there might be xenomorphs there and send their own ship out if the Marines were to disappear under mysterious circumstances. So, even if the entire mission team gets killed, the colony and the xenomorphs would still be there and allow for the company to get their hands on a specimen.

** By underfunding the mission and making all those other decisions that disadvantaged it, they were actually increasing the chances of the entire mission team ending up dead and not bringing an alien back.

** Although you have to wonder at the usefulness of a rescue mission having to come from Earth. While it's not specifically stated how long it takes to make the trip from Earth to LV426, it's long enough to make it worthwhile for everybody to go into hypersleep, so it's going to be a hell of a long time for any survivors to hold out. Logically, there should be a backup team waiting in orbit on the ''Sulaco''.