Aliens

Trivia: As the laser is cutting the hatch of the Nostromo's escape pod, you can see the harpoon gun wedged in the door, just like it was when Ripley shot the alien with it at the end of the first film.

Trivia: Paul Reiser's character Carter Burke was so immediately hated that during the movie's premiere his sister hit him, and when Burke's death occurred, his mom's response was simply "good."

Trivia: Michael Biehn wasn't the original choice for corporal Hicks. James Remar was originally cast, and he had already started filming. He was fired over an incident involving drugs. Biehn was then offered the part and flew over to London straight away. Most of the scenes Remar had already filmed were reshot, but him as Hicks coming into the Hive with the rest of the Marines remains. That featured visual effects which couldn't be re-done, so shots of Remar's face were edited out.

Trivia: Walter Hill and David Giler's initial story outline given to Cameron as a rough basis to write the script from was written in an amusingly casual and irreverent style, at one point jokingly referring to the space jockey from the first film as "the dental patient." Cameron recalls of their treatment, "I'll never forget this - the outline concluded with the sentence; 'And then some other bullshit happens.'"

TonyPH

Trivia: Stephen Lang auditioned to play Hicks, a role eventually filled by Michael Biehn. Over twenty years later, Lang would be cast in Avatar as Colonel Quaritch, ironically a part that Biehn was initially considered for.

MrMovieBuff

Trivia: Sigourney Weaver was not that keen to be in the sequel to Alien, so she demanded an exceptionally high fee considering her fairly low status as a movie actress at the time and also a percentage of the box office takings. The producers were going to drop her and go ahead without her but James Cameron insisted that she was fundamental to the film and so her fee was accepted and paid.

Trivia: Early marketing research ahead of the film's release showed that a significant number of people mistook 'Aliens' for the original movie 'Alien.' To address this, the studio made sure commercials referred to the film as "Aliens: the new movie" and gave the film a logo visually distinct from the one for 'Alien.' To this day, 'Alien' and 'Aliens' are treated almost as separate brands; merchandise and tie-in media tend to evoke one or the other, rarely both.

TonyPH

Aliens mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Newt is sliding across the grated floor, Bishop reaches out to save her and you can clearly see he's standing in a hole to make him look cut in half. (02:11:40)

More mistakes in Aliens

[All ammunition has been confiscated.]
Marine: What are we supposed to use? Harsh language?.

More quotes from Aliens

Question: What ever happens to the female doctor that evaluates Newt? She evaluates Newt, says one line or so, then disappears forever.

William Bergquist

Chosen answer: Down in the tunnels, she is the soldier that says "Maybe they don't show up on infrared at all." and is then grabbed and hoisted to the ceiling by an Alien, discharging her flamethrower and killing the other Marine. Later, Hudson says "The Sarge and Deitrich (the female medic) aren't dead. Their signs are real low but they ain't dead." So she was cocooned and played host for new aliens.

Grumpy Scot

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