Aliens on 4oD (with plot spoiler if revealing the end of the film counts as spoiling it)

I was re-watching Aliens (Aliens on 4oD : Aliens review on C4.com) the other day and after all these years it's still one of my all time favourite films. Admittedly first seeing it in 1986 as part of a James Cameron double with Terminator in New York in a smoking cinema where the light of the projector would catch the smokers' fug as it rose from the pit has lent the whole thing a certain romance. Even so Terminator and Aliens is one of the all time classic double bills. While Linda Hamilton's character, Sarah Connor, in Terminator graduates from the slightly ditzy valley girl that we see at the outset of the film into the potential saviour of the world at the end, Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley has already proved that she's more than capable of handling herself in Ridley Scott's Alien. In fact part of the many great pleasures of Aliens is the tension that builds while waiting for it to kick-off, assured by the near certainty that despite her very humanness Ripley can give as good as she can get. It's a testament to the script and Weaver's poise in the role that the whole thing isn't preposterous and yes, perfectly natural that she should rescue the mission, save the girl and kick the alien's ass. A fairer match might have been Ripley vs Alien, Predator and the Terminator. Even then you wouldn't bet against Ripley.


Rent Aliens for £2.99