The Top Ten Most Quotable Movies of All Time Number Seven Aliens

"Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?"

"No. Have you?"

Included with the Aliens DVD box set is a series of "making-of" documentaries about the film that are truly fascinating accounts of just how difficult this movie was to make. With special effects that rely on skillful directing and actual models more than computer-generated visuals, even after two decades, Aliens holds up remarkably well as an example of achievement in a number of notoriously difficult categories.

First, it is a sequel to Ridley Scott's excellent Alien, which many argue set the standard for the modern sci-fi/horror genre. There are few films that did more with less than Alien.

Two, Aliens portrays a universe filled with really big stuff. There are half-mile starships, flights from orbit to the ground, 35-story atmosphere processors, an alien queen that is at least 15 feet in height and a vapor cloud the size of Nebraska. This was 90% done with models, guidewires and skillful filming, not computers.

Also, this film had to depict combat, and a lot of it, where one side was pretty much either models, puppets or people in alien suits. Having these battles turn out to be not-so-good on film was an ever-present possibility that Aliens overcame brilliantly. Again, the battles look very realistic even after dozens of viewings.

Aliens is also very well paced, even though it has been described more than once as a "roller coaster" film. There are plenty of "rest stops" during the plot, but even they are well written and directed with the same sense of dread as the overall story.

One example of what this film accomplished above and beyond pretty much everything else is its sense of atmosphere. There is nothing in this film that is not drenched in an overwhelming sense of unease. This is what allows most of the quotes in the film to resonate with such weight and effect. There are a couple of moments, for example, long before any encounters with the aliens themselves, without which the film would have had far less impact.

One of those moments is when Ripley is trying to convince Newt that the Colonial Marines are going to be able to protect them from the monstrous aliens. Because of Sigourney Weaver's phenomenal acting talent, she is able to communicate, without words, the obvious unwritten attempt by Ripley to convince herself that the Colonial Marines can protect them. Newt's next words strike directly at the heart of Ripley's courage and ominously set the stage for what is about to take place.

"It won't make any difference."

Now there are those who point out the utter absurdity of a military officer sending his platoon into a hostile area unarmed, but Aliens does manage to minimize the "huh?" moments better than most science fiction movies do, and Aliens is one of only a very few films able to generate and then maintain a level of suspense for almost its entire running time. The audience is not expected to catch their breath from the moment the drop-ship releases until Ripley and Newt fall asleep back aboard the Sulaco at the end of the film.

One interesting fact about this film that most people probably don't realize is how many of the effects were done with miniatures. There are a couple of scenes where people would rightly expect a huge set had been built based on what they had seen, but where they would be surprised to note those scenes were accomplished with miniatures and skillful camera work.

Aliens is also a film with a large amount of very skillful puppetry, most of which was used for the depictions of the alien queen. Some of the documentaries on the boxed-set DVD explained how, for example, the alien queen was brought to life in the chase out of the atmosphere processing facility. Several people were required to move the puppet's legs and to operate the very large and relatively heavy head and arms in real time to make the puppet model "walk" or "climb" more or less down the hallway towards the lift doors.

There are a couple of "oops" moments in the film as well, but unless you're looking for them, they are likely to be missed. One of the easier ones to notice is the flashbulb that is clearly visible after one of the grenade explosions in the queen's egg-sac. The other, if you have seen the film several times and have not already seen it, will be really surprising. After the battle between the powerloader and the alien queen, when the outer door is open and the landing bay is decompressing, Newt is being pulled towards the hatch by the escaping air. There is a scene of Bishop reaching out to stop her and if you look carefully, you can clearly see the hole in the floor Lance Henriksen is standing in.