ALIENS: 4K UHD Blu-ray (2oth Century-Fox/Brandywine, 1986) Disney Home Video

Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) had been one of the irrefutable highlights of the 1970’s, an epoch that saw theater attendance slow to a trickle of what it had been only a decade before. Pundits swarmed, declaring that, very soon, we would all be referencing the participatory past of going to the theater in the same way we affectionately looked upon the horse and buggy in the age of the gas-powered motorcar. Mercifully, that end was not quite so near. And yet, despite its superior craftsmanship and formidable take at the box office, the notion of a sequel to Scott’s sci-fi/horror flick was not immediately apparent. Part of this hesitation stemmed from 2oth Century-Fox’s downward spiral, its ever-evolving management after the departure of Richard Zanuck and David Brown, threatening to shudder the studio for good. After the departure of studio president, Alan Ladd Jr., incumbent Norman Levy and Brandywine cofounder, David Giler voiced their own concerns; that the demands of an even more costly sequel would sink the studio for good. This argument was not without merit as receipts from horror movies had rapidly declined throughout the early eighties.

To complicate matters, Giler and Brandywine co-founders, Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll were in the process of suing Fox for unpaid profits from Alien. Eventually, a settlement was struck, though again, not without considerable risk to place plans for the sequel in immediate turnaround.  Mercifully, after Levy departed the studio, his successor, Joe Wizan was most enthusiastic to revive the project. But it would be seven long years before Ellen Ripley, winningly portrayed by Sigourney Weaver in the original, would reemerge in its follow-up, this time in a manner befitting her status as a feminist crusader. By then, Ridley Scott was out of the running. James Cameron, however, was very much in demand and almost immediately seconded to the cause. Aliens (1986) would continue Cameron’s upward trajectory after The Terminator (1984) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) had already solidified his reputation as a masterful director/screenwriter. However, at the time Aliens began its gestation, the only proof of Cameron’s skill lay in a B-budgeted horror movie, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982). This failed to impress either Wizan or his successor, Lawrence Gordon, though Gordon did, at least, recognize there was still money to be made if Alien were to become a franchise.

A 9-month delay in the start date of The Terminator, to accommodate Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commitments on Conan: The Destroyer allowed Cameron to go back and rework his treatment for the Alien sequel which he also aspired to direct. Cameron’s agent warned against it, suggesting any positive feedback to the new movie would likely be attributed to the inspiration of Ridley Scott, while anything negative would likely be blamed on Cameron for tinkering with the ‘tried and true’ formula. Undaunted, Cameron forged ahead, concurring with producer, Anne Hurd that the new movie should combine horror with a more ruthless approach to the action sequences. Fox chairman, Barry Diller liked what he read in Cameron’s treatment. He was, however, gravely concerned about the $35 million projected budget and suggested fifteen or even twelve million would suffice. To this suggestion, Hurd and Cameron resigned, plying their clout and persuasion to get into Diller’s good graces with a more feasible account. The hard-balling continued with Sigourney Weaver’s salary demands to reprise her role. When negotiations reached an impasse, Cameron bluffed, suggesting his screenplay could easily be reworked for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Weaver’s agent retreated and Weaver was paid $1.4 million to return to the fold.

Fox exec’, Lawrence Gordon green-lit the picture. But Aliens would be shot at Pinewood Studios in England, with a projected budget of $18.5 million. Yet, almost immediately, Cameron’s slavish and workhorse-like precision clashed with the Brit’s more leisurely pace of doing things. Frustrated, Cameron’s fastidiousness, as well as his constant tinkering with the pace and length of certain scenes in the editing room, suffered its most notable casualty in composer, James Horner’s allotment of time to write and record the score. Horner had worked with Cameron much earlier for director, Roger Corman. But now, Cameron’s constant experimenting in the editing room cut the actual time afforded Horner to think up cues, reduced from six to three weeks – a daunting task by any stretch of the imagination. As prior contractual obligations had Horner writing the score for The Name of the Rose, he hastened to get his ideas for Aliens into a recording suite with the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. Alas, Cameron was not entirely pleased with these results. Without Horner’s compliance, or even his participation, Cameron proceeded to Ginsu Horner’s cues, replacing some with Jerry Goldsmith’s original tracks from Alien, and, snippets arranged by other ‘unknown’ talent to create a sort of evolving hybrid, more to Cameron’s liking. The remaining unused portions of Horner’s contributions on Aliens would later resurface in Fox’s Die Hard (1988).

Aliens opens with Ellen Ripley in a 57-year-old stasis aboard her escape shuttle from the alien-infected spacecraft, Nostromo.  Revived, then debriefed by Carter J. Burke (Paul Reiser), a middling exec working for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, though highly skeptical about Ripley’s claim there are alien eggs inside a derelict ship on the exomoon LV-426, since transformed into a gloomy terraforming colony, concerns fester after the corporation loses all contact with their satellite colony. Connivingly, Burke gets Ripley to agree to return to search for survivors, with a military escort provided by Colonial Marine Lieutenant Gorman (William Hope). Among the new recruits are Colonial Hudson (Bill Paxton) – cocky, but easily spooked, Corporal Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn in a role originally slated for James Remar), Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews), Privates Frost (Ricco Ross), Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), Drake (Mark Rolston), Spunkmeyer (Daniel Kash), Crowe (Tip Tipping), and Wierzbowski (Trevor Steedman), and an android, Bishop (Lance Henriksen). Ripley is suspicious of Bishop, as the android aboard the Nostromo in the original movie had betrayed its crew.

Upon their arrival to LV-426, Ripley and her cohorts quickly discover the colony seemingly abandoned. Within the medical lab, they find two preserved facehuggers in containment tanks, and a shellshocked little girl, Ripley nicknames, Newt (Carrie Henn). It isn’t long before Hicks and the others discover the remains of the colonists covered in alien secretions in the bowels of the fusion plant, their bodies serving as incubators for more alien offspring. The Marines assault the colony, but are ambushed by a litany of full-grown adult aliens. One by one, the marines are picked off. Meanwhile, Burke’s shortsightedness strands Ripley and the survivors after their rescue craft crash lands on the tarmac. After Gorman suffers a PTSD meltdown, Ripley assumes command, unearthing the truth behind their mission. Burke ordered the colonists to recover the eggs, hoping to harness them as a biological weapon. After the others are asleep, Ripley and Newt awaken to find themselves cornered by the liberated facehuggers Burke hopes will impregnate them with their eggs to smuggle back to earth. Instead, Ripley dispatches with the facehuggers. Another assault from the adult aliens and Newt is separated from Ripley. In her rescue attempt, Ripley comes face to face with the alien queen surrounded by scores of eggs on the verge of hatching. Unleashing her arsenal of weaponry on the offspring and the queen, Ripley races back to the ship with Newt. LV-426 is consumed in a nuclear holocaust, with only Ripley, Hicks, Newt and Bishop having survived. Alas, the queen has also found her way into the cargo hold. She tears Bishop in half and advances on Ripley, who dons an exosuit cargo-loader to force the queen into an airlock before jettisoning her into space. Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and what remains of Bishop enter hyper-sleep for their return home.

Interestingly, Cameron’s sequel would emerge from this artistic fray as one of the most celebrated of any sci-fi movie, earning a Best Actress Oscar nod for Sigourney Weaver at a time when the genre was still generally considered the red-headed stepchild of Hollywood. And Aliens intake - a whopping $183.3 million - made it one of the highest-grossing pics of the season. Viewing Aliens today, its’ reputation as a finely wrought and truly terrifying dark masterpiece remains unaffected. Alas, Cameron’s standing as a caustic and offensive task master in pursuit of perfection also endures, and, was muchly maligned on the set back in ‘86. It could, however, not be ignored. When cinematographer, Dick Bush contradicted Cameron’s request to moodily light the queen’s lair, he was promptly replaced by Adrian Biddle; ditto for assistant director, Derek Cracknell, prompting the entire Pinewood crew to walk off the set. Begrudgingly, everyone came back after their grievances had been settled. And although the reception remained frosty until the final day’s shoot, Cameron had the final word when, in his farewell address, rather than give thanks for everyone’s participation, he haughtily suggested that “…the one thing that kept me going was the certain knowledge that one day I would drive out the gate of Pinewood and never come back, and that you sorry bastards would still be here!”

Like True Lies, Aliens finally marks its 4K UHD Blu-ray release. Unlike True Lies, Aliens was previously given a stand-alone Blu-ray, and, a box set from Fox Home Video in 2014. As before, this 4K set includes both the theatrical and director’s cuts of the movie – restoring some 17 minutes of footage Fox deemed either too violent or too superfluous for audiences to tolerate. Viewing the 4K is a markedly different experience. In much the same way Paramount reimagined The Godfather Trilogy for 4K, Aliens has been given the ‘once over’ with a litany of digital clean-up tools that have de-grained Biddle’s original cinematography. Important to note, nothing has been lost in terms of fine detail. It's the grain that’s gone – or rather, and somehow, massaged to a point where those averse to grain itself are likely to very much enjoy seeing Aliens with a fresh pair of eyes.  As a purist, I’m torn. Aliens in 4K looks exceptionally nuanced and is a breathtaking visual experience with deeply saturated colors, expertly timed contrast and superbly rendered detail.

That stated, it looks absolutely nothing like it did, either theatrically, or as reincarnated from that expertly rendered Blu from Fox in 2014. The audio has been sweetened with a Dolby Atmos upgrade. This is all to the good and colossally satisfying.  Wow! Do the subs get a workout here! Disney Inc., the custodians of the Fox library, have given us everything from the past editions of Aliens, including Cameron’s commentary and a bonus disc housing hours of ‘making of’ content – featurettes, outtakes, test footage, trailers, etc. - that was a part of the aforementioned SE Blu. Aside: I do hope the comprehensiveness on show here trickles down to Disney’s mindset regarding their own deep catalog, much of it shorn of extras since making their leap to standard Blu. But I digress. Aliens in 4K UHD is a revelation of sorts. It isn’t the movie you remember from ’86. But it arguably looks better than it ever has, while still retaining its original thrills. Bottom line: highly recommended.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

5

VIDEO/AUDIO

5+

EXTRAS

4