Since most of the films screened at LERNER
INTERNATIONAL HQ during February were of a political, if not “grown-up” nature
[reviews below break], let’s start with something silly (that’ll also give us
the opportunity to do some serious desk clearing regarding jpegs cluttering our
files)—
Let’s take a brief look at
James Cameron’s Aliens
(1986), specifically the people-to-xenomorph ratio—what was up with that?
It takes one human (or animal, as Alien3 showed us) to create a “xenomorph warrior” (the type of
nasty critter that popped out of the unfortunate Kane’s chest), so with the 158
colonists captured and “infected,” that makes 158 alien warriors.
Okay, let’s say there were some farm animals and pets
along (although we’re never given any indication of that), so we will be
generous: add another 100 living beings to the list (although some of those
will be smaller animals like chickens or cats; maybe a cow or a couple of pigs,
but not many; it’s a “shake & bake” colony, remember?).
Therefore, there should only be about 250 aliens on
the planet.
And we see the space-leathernecks kill a lot of them.
No, I’m not going through the movie and do a body
count, but in reality, by the end, it really is one-on-one between Ripley and
the Alien Queen.
Not that we’re ever given any indication of that: For
drama and suspense, Cameron makes us believe there are thousands of the nasty critters on that inhospitable ball of rock,
with plenty more creeping about the shadows.
And because Cameron is a master of action and
suspense, it isn’t until seventeen damn
years later that I get around to thinking about. Kudos, sir, well played!
Onto the reviews!
