Question: What is the actual time frame from when Ripley is revived from the Nostromo's lifeboat to when she joins the mission to LV-426 to when the team actually arrives there? I know that the colonists were attacked after Burke sent the order for them to check out the alien spacecraft, but in alien, it was only a matter of hours before the facehugger dropped from Kane's face, and a few more after that when the newborn emerged. If this is accurate, then how could any of the infected colonists still be alive when the marines arrived and were checking the mass cocoon? In a previous question above, it was ascertained that the flight time was a minimum of 2 weeks, possibly more. Add to that the time it took to convince Ripley to agree to go and prep time for takeoff, I'd say it's anywhere from 2 1/2 to 3 weeks before they got there and any impregnated colonists should have dead.
Tailkinker
13th Dec 2012
Aliens (1986)
Answer: You're assuming that they received transmissions at sub-light speed. It could have have been weeks or months before they received an S.O.S. Ripley said Newt survived for weeks on her own.
20th Oct 2012
Aliens (1986)
Question: The woman making the announcements in Grand Central Terminal in Superman: The Movie sounds a lot like the Mother computer. Could someone confirm this?
Chosen answer: No, it isn't the same woman. Mother was voiced by actress Helen Horton, who is not credited for any role in Superman, although, coincidentally, she did appear in Superman III in the minor role of Miss Henderson.
8th Aug 2012
Aliens (1986)
Question: Has there ever been a canon answer as to whether or not the Space Jockey's ship was destroyed in the explosion at the end? Something from Cameron or another of the film's writers? Comic adaptations and novelizations aren't canon.
Chosen answer: No, there hasn't, although an upcoming computer game, "Aliens: Colonial Marines", which is set post-Aliens, includes action set on the derelict ship. While obviously of dubious canonicity, as there are as yet no official statements to the contrary, the ship can currently be considered to have survived the detonation of the atmosphere processor. Should a future film provide further information on the subject, the status of the ship can be reconsidered canonically.
4th Sep 2010
Aliens (1986)
Question: How did the first facehugger get through Kane's helmet? In 'Alien' the people searching the alien craft wore helmets, in 'Aliens', Newt's parents didn't wear helmets. Can anyone explain the discrepancy?
Chosen answer: It burned its way through Kane's faceplate by excreting some acidic substance - that's why it appears melted. As for the helmets discrepancy between the two films, when the Nostromo landed on LV-426, the planet's atmosphere wasn't capable of supporting human life, forcing Dallas, Kane and Lambert to wear full suits. By the time Newt's family locate the derelict ship, fifty-seven years later, the human terraforming process has been running for twenty years, altering the atmosphere enough to make it breathable.
16th Dec 2009
Aliens (1986)
Question: When Ripley takes the gun and goes to see Newt, who is then under the bed, she puts the gun on the bed. But then the gun is in the next room when the alien is attacking. Have I just mistaken this and it was placed on the table, or is this a mistake? Thanks.
Chosen answer: Neither, it's a plot point. When Burke released the facehuggers into their room, with the aim of impregnating Ripley and Newt with aliens so that he could get them back to Earth, he took Ripley's gun and moved it outside the room before he locked them in, so that she couldn't use it to defend themselves.
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Answer: You're assuming that all the colonists were captured by the aliens at the same time. There's no evidence to support that, particularly; logically the takeover would have happened over a period of time. Only one alien would have been brought back to the colony, from the facehugger that attacked Newt's father, so some considerable time must have passed while new eggs were acquired to infect other colonists and increase the number of alien warriors available. We don't know precisely when communications with the colony were cut off, but, from the lack of information available to the marines sent to investigate, it must have happened relatively early in the infestation, so it's entirely plausible that the colonists' final stand didn't take place until the marines were already well on their way. Newt's survival until the marines' arrival clearly opens up the possibility that other colonists were able to avoid capture for some time after the final stand. As such, it's not remotely unreasonable to suggest that the live colonist found in the cocoon chamber had been captured by the aliens no more than a day before the marines found her.
Tailkinker ★
Regarding the colonist dying from a chestburster in front of the Marines as opposed to sometime before, maybe the colonist went into a coma of some kind (psychological if nothing else) and the chestburster of course did likewise, and then the Marines caused her, and accordingly the alien larva, to awaken (seems an enormous coincidence of timing otherwise) at that particular moment. It's also possible the adult aliens, having gone dormant with nothing to do, have somehow caused the chestburster and/or host to do likewise, again, with the Marines' arrival, the larva awoke and the adults followed suit. It's even possible the chestburster had some form of birth defect that caused its "late start."
dizzyd
I think that the adult Aliens were just sleeping or resting because Newt told Ripley that the Aliens mostly come out at night.
With reference to the original question about taking 2 weeks to get to the planet from earth, in the first Alien film the flight time was 10 months. I know that a military ship would be faster than an old tug 57 years previously but to cut the journey down that much would be impossible.
Well, the colonists may have been infected at the same time but that woman was still alive when they found her, so this shows that not all the colonists were infected at the same time assuming she even is a colonist.