Aliens

Director: James Cameron

1986 / 137min / 35mm

Where its predecessor was a slow-burn suspenser, Cameron’s Aliens is a bombastic, no-holds-barred exosuit fight to the finish, an express elevator to hell, goin’ down! Lone survivor Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) goes back for a rematch with the creatures who slaughtered the crew of the Nostromo, this time bringing along a squad of hard-boiled space marines whose number includes the great Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, and Lance Henriksen’s mumblety-peg-playing android Bishop. Rounding out the superb supporting players are the aliens themselves, pinnacles of pre-CGI visual effects that just keep coming, and coming, and coming, and coming… while Mead’s contributions can mostly be seen in the blade-like military vessel Sulaco and the unforgettable “Power Loader” donned by Ripley for the main event grudge match.

“Hot off of the immediate successes of Blade Runner and TRON, Syd Mead was enlisted by Cameron to build out the world of Aliens, his muscular, action-oriented second chapter to Ridley Scott’s now-iconic 1979 masterpiece. The centerpiece of Mead’s designs is the U.S.S. Sulaco, the military spaceship that transports the Colonial Marines, infusing the vessel with a functional and industrial aesthetic that enhanced the film’s gritty realism.” —Series curators William Corman and Elon Solo

Introduction by Syd Mead: Future Pastime curators William Corman and Elon Solo on Sunday, April 27th