History Fridge / Aliens

* After the destruction of the dropship, Ripley asks Hicks how it would take for the group to be declared overdue before they can expect a rescue mission to be sent. Hick's response is "17 days." In the theatrical cut, this number doesn't make much sense. However, with the Special Edition, we get a good reason for such a long period of time that Earth would wait before they would send a rescue mission. When introduced to Hadley's Hope, two of the residents talk about the grid coordinates they received from Earth to check out. When asked about why, one of them says it takes two weeks to send a message to Earth and another two weeks to get a response. Two weeks is 14 days. That means that Earth was waiting the typical two weeks for a message from the marines to find out what happened and send a report. If no message was received in the two weeks or within the three days later (making it 17 days total), the marines would be declared overdue and a rescue mission would be prepped and sent.

* After the destruction of the dropship, Ripley asks Hicks how it would take for the group to be declared overdue before they can expect a rescue mission to be sent. Hick's response is "17 days." In the theatrical cut, this number doesn't make much sense. However, with the Special Edition, we get a good reason for such a long period of time that Earth would wait before they would send a rescue mission. When introduced to Hadley's Hope, two of the residents talk about the grid coordinates they received from Earth to check out. When asked about why, one of them says it takes two weeks to send a message to Earth and another two weeks to get a response. Two weeks is 14 days. That means that Earth was waiting the typical two weeks for a message from the marines to find out what happened and send a report. If no message was received three days later (making it 17 days total), a rescue mission would be prepped and sent.

** Whether Ripley was found or not the Aliens would still be there and the company was still terraforming the planet. The longer the ship went undiscovered the larger the civillian population would be and the larger the casualties would be when it was finally found. The really horrifying thing is that the movie is one of the better scenarios for how things could have gone down.
* The heartwarming exchange of first names between Ripley and Hicks -- it was the last time they ever spoke to each other. If you take the third film as canon however.
* Though she's certainly the one most human audiences would root for, Ripley is not the only MamaBear in the film, since the Alien Queen holds back when Ripley is only threatening the eggs, then pursues after Ripley decides to torch them (as the eggs start to open, meaning she and Newt were dangerously close to getting facehugged by them; if not for that, it almost seems like the two might've gotten away with less incident). Ripley also causes her ovipositor to be ripped off, which even aside from the physical pain is a very, very personal kind of injury (assuming of course that the xenomorphs value that kind of thing the way most intelligent creatures would) -- is it even possible for that part to grow back? For that matter, Ripley herself was only lost for so long (and thus separated from her own daughter for the rest of her life) due to the first incident with the xenomorph onboard the ''Nostromo'', so there's sort of a revenge cycle to the whole thing too. So although the alien queen is responsible for the slaughter and consumption of quite a lot of humans, it could still be said there's some tragedy on both sides of the situation -- as Ripley herself put it (albeit directed mainly at Burke's cruel behavior), "I'm not sure which species is worse".
** Ripley was clearly running on a burning, hateful desire to get some payback from the creatures. Which is indeed tragic, because had she accepted the Queen's offering to leave, the Xenos were just scant minutes from being vaporized anyway, and all the events in the sequel would have been avoided. Of course, one can hardly blame her from acting out on such emotions, because seriously, screw the Xenomorphs.

* The idea that one of the Xenos was able to sneak aboard the dropship without anyone noticing is pretty creepy. The Marines swept the colony complex yet still didn't find the one that kills Spunkmeyer and Ferro. Given how smart the Xenos are, they were probably hiding in the complex to begin with and were observing the Marines from the moment they arrived planetside. Yet that Xeno waited until ''after'' the Marines got attacked in the atmosphere processor before killing Ferro. ''The Xenos were toying with the humans from the very beginning.''

** Their plots mirror each other: Ripley's a mother looking for a daughter, and Newt's a daughter looking for a mother. Hence the reason Newt calls Ripley "Mommy" upon beating the Xenomorph Queen.

* Why was Hicks was out of commission even though he was only burned by the acid? Because he breathed in some of the fumes of the burning. His lungs were being burned on the inside.
* Near the end of the first movie, Ripley is trying to flee the ''Nostromo'' and an automated self destruct countdown voice can be omnipresently heard. This time, she's *running back in* during an automated self-destruct countdown voice, and might very well be noticing that when she's in the elevator on the way back down.

* In the end Ripley enters deep into the lair and manages to get out alive with Newt. In the process she encounters only few xenomorphs and their queen ends up pursuing her alone. That's because the preceding attacks of the "endless hordes" actually resulted in death of the most of the grown up xenomorphs and majority of the surviving still prowl the base in search of the Marines.
* It might seem odd that the Alien Queen would impale Bishop, given that the Xenomorphs can tell what is a human and what is an android, and they usually don't go after them unless they are a threat, something the Queen obviously knew. However, while the Queen had not seen Bishop, she knew he had rescued Ripley, the human who had just annihilated her entire hive. This meant Bishop was an enemy and she went for him first to avoid another possible save scenario. Another possibility is that the Queen was attempting to impale Ripley, but missed and hit Bishop instead.

* Ripley's accusation against Burke seems like he is engaging in some kind of very convoluted scheme. With only about an hour until the station is going to explode, he's relying upon the team to transport infected Ripley and Newt back to the ''Sulaco''? Once there, how would he "sabotage" the pods, especially if he would likely be among the first to be put to sleep, or at least certainly not the last? Well, an easier explanation would be that he was simply trying to kill Ripley when he released the Facehuggers because she had specifically threatened to press (very serious) charges against him which would make him responsible for the death of the entire colony. However, it's not exactly like he can reply to her accusation in front of the soldiers with a "That's crazy-talk, I was only trying to kill you" can he?
* Many people seem to find Burke as trustworthy due to when we first see him in the scene where Ripley wakes up at Gateway station and seem shocked by his HeelFaceTurn later on in the film. But viewers miss one thing: the first scene we see Burke in is the start of a nightmare that Ripley is having. Meaning that the Burke who introduces himself is actually not really Burke, and that she had met Burke off screen, fell asleep and then had the nightmare that incorporated a kinder/friendlier version of him. That means the first time we meet Burke for real is in the deleted scene with him delivering information about Amanda, and he is clearly not as warm or charming to her as we first see him. That means that Burke could have always been as he was in the latter half of the film and Ripley didn't notice.

*** It's also quite likely that Burke didn't believe Ripley's story (or thought it was exaggerated), and that he sent the colonists to check that particular grid coordinate just to verify that there was nothing there - not as part of a nefarious plot to have the colonists impregnated.

* The heartwarming exchange of first names between Ripley and Hicks - it was the last time they ever spoke to each other. If you take the third film as canon however.
* Though she's certainly the one most human audiences would root for, Ripley is not the only MamaBear in the film, since the Alien Queen holds back when Ripley is only threatening the eggs, then pursues after Ripley decides to torch them (as the eggs start to open, meaning she and Newt were dangerously close to getting facehugged by them; if not for that, it almost seems like the two might've gotten away with less incident). Ripley also causes her ovipositor to be ripped off, which even aside from the physical pain is a very, very personal kind of injury (assuming of course that the xenomorphs value that kind of thing the way most intelligent creatures would)- is it even possible for that part to grow back? For that matter, Ripley herself was only lost for so long (and thus separated from her own daughter for the rest of her life) due to the first incident with the xenomorph onboard the ''Nostromo'', so there's sort of a revenge cycle to the whole thing too. So although the alien queen is responsible for the slaughter and consumption of quite a lot of humans, it could still be said there's some tragedy on both sides of the situation- as Ripley herself put it (albeit directed mainly at Burke's cruel behavior), "I'm not sure which species is worse".

* The idea that one of the Xenos was able to sneak aboard the dropship without anyone is pretty creepy. The Marines swept the colony complex yet still didn't find the one that kills Spunkmeyer and Ferro. Given how smart the Xenos are, they were probably hiding in the complex to begin with and were observing the Marines from the moment they arrived planetside. Yet that Xeno waited until ''after'' the Marines got attacked in the atmosphere processor before killing Ferro. ''The Xenos were toying with the humans from the very beginning.''

* The addition of the Ripley's daughter subplot adds in a small bit of Fridge Brilliance. Ripley is the only one who's able to get anything out of Newt when she's first found. Of course a mother would be better than the marines at getting information out of an uncooperative child.

*** It's implied in the novel that Dietrich does have a certain amount of training in this area; she's able to tell that Newt isn't too far gone to be brought back, and after Ripley manages to get through to Newt, Dietrich orders that nobody - including Ripley - quiz her about what happened, as forcing her to relive it might end up driving Newt back into silence.

* Near the end of the first movie, Ripley is trying to flee the ''Nostromo'' and an automated self destruct countdown voice can be omnipresently heard. This time, she's *running back in* during an automated self destruct countdown voice, and might very well be noticing that when she's in the elevator on the way back down.

* In the end Ripley enters deep into the lair and manages to get out alive with Newt. In the process she encounters only few xenomorphs and their queen ends up pursuing her alone. That's because the preceding attacks of the "endless hordes" actually resulted in death of the most of the grown up xenomorphs and majority of the surviving still prowl the base in search of the marines.

* Ripley's accusation against Burke seems like he is engaging in some kind of very convoluted scheme. With only about an hour until the station is going to explode, he's relying upon the team to transport infected Ripley and Newt back to the Sulaco? Once there, how would he "sabotage" the pods, especially if he would likely be among the first to be put to sleep, or at least certainly not the last? Well, an easier explanation would be that he was simply trying to kill Ripley when he released the Facehuggers because she had specifically threatened to press (very serious) charges against him which would make him responsible for the death of the entire colony. However, it's not exactly like he can reply to her accusation in front of the soldiers with a "That's crazy-talk, I was only trying to kill you" can he?

* 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.
* 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.

* During the APC escape sequence, an Alien attacks the [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] and Ripley ends up [[CarFu running over it]], crushing it's skull under the tires and splashing [[HollywoodAcid acid]] [[AlienBlood blood]] underneath the vehicle. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero This probably had something to do with the transaxle breaking shortly afterwards]]...

* One platoon of soldiers 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 soldiers are doing search and rescue on planet! 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 Marine starship 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.

** 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.

** 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, 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.

** 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, 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, most of the marine group would have been wiped out, 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.

* One platoon of soldiers 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 soldiers are doing search and rescue on planet! 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 Marine starship over a planet!

*** Though the xenos don't see androids as viable breeding options, they do see them as ''threats''. So, they act accordingly. In the novel, Bishop makes no threatening movements nor impedes the xeno, so it leaves him alone.

** In a scene from the novelization, after Bishop emerges from the tube he was crawling down to get to the Uplink Tower, he encounters a xenomorph and it disregards him. He surmises that the reason why the alien didn't attack him was because he had no heartbeat or any other indicators used by the aliens to track down potential hosts. In short, the alien didn't see him. If it was from a previous draft, that would explain how Bishop got hit: the Queen saw Ripley and didn't see Bishop in front of her. Bishop inadvertently saved Ripley from being killed at that moment.

* Why Hicks was out of commission even though he was only burned by the acid? Because he breathed in some of the fumes of the burning. His lungs were being burned on the inside.

* It might seem odd that the Alien Queen would impale Bishop, given that the Xenomorphs can tell what is a human and what is an android, and they usually don't go after them unless they are a threat, something the Queen obviously knew. However, while the Queen had not seen Bishop, she knew he had rescued Ripley, the human who had just annihilated her entire hive. This meant Bishop was an enemy and she went for him first to avoid another possible save scenario. Another possibility is that the Queen was attempting to impale Ripley, but missed and hit Bishop instead.

* In the end Ripley enters deep into the lair and manages to get out alive with Newt. In the process she encounters only few xenomorphs and their queen ends up pursuing her alone. That's because the preceding attacks of the "endless hordes" actually resulted in death of the most of the grown up xenomorphs and majority of the surviving still prowl the base in search of the marines.

* During the APC escape sequence, an Alien attacks the [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] and Ripley ends up [[CarFu running over it]], crushing it's skull under the tires and splashing [[HollywoodAcid acid]] [[AlienBlood blood]] underneath the vehicle. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero This probably had something to do with the transaxle breaking shortly afterwards]]...

*** It's quite possible that the W-Y execs who sent the ''Nostromo'' out in the first place buried the records after an expensive ship and its crew failed to report back. Meaning the company as a whole did in fact forget about the whole thing. The Fridge Horror there is that the company [[ButForMeItWasTuesday doesn't even remember]] what it did to Ripley and the ''Nostromo''.

*** It's quite possible that the W-Y execs who sent the ''Nostromo'' out in the first place buried the records after an expensive ship and its crew failed to report back. Meaning the company as a whole did in fact forget about the whole thing. The Fridge Horror there is that the company doesn't even remember what it did to Ripley and the ''Nostromo''.

** Which actually makes sense, as the comics point out an Alien Queen is smart, if not smarter, than most humans. One comic states that they rate above figures like Einstein and Hawking in processing ability, and possess latent telepathic powers. Yes, [[PsychicPowers they can read your mind, and influence your dreams.]]

** Which actually makes sense, as the comics point out an Alien Queen is smart, if not smarter, than most humans. One comic states that they rate above figures like Einstein and Hawking in processing ability, and possess latent telepathic powers. Yes, [[PsychicPowers they can read your mind, and influence your ''dreams''.]]