In the late 20th century James Cameron brought about the Alien film franchise. With the lead character Ellen Ripley captivating audiences as the new badass action hero to compare with the likes of Rambo, RoboCop, and John McClane. Alien (1979) was the first time Ellen Ripley hit the big screen and it was a total success at the box office at the time ensnaring both women and men into the theater so that they could see the terrifying new sci-fi film. Alien has also been a huge critical success with it being the film most often written about through the feminist lens by a long mile. Why then is it so important to discuss the second film Aliens (1986)? The answer is because it does everything the first film did but again. This might seem confusing or even a bad idea when it comes to making a movie but this film was just as much a success as the first one even if the staying power of this second film hasn’t reached legendary status like the first film. However, its’ success at its’ release has made something clear. The audiences, at least from 1979 through 1986, wanted a female lead who was portrayed not as a lamp post with lines to read or a body to ogle but instead as a fully fledged, developed, and powerful. Ripley was indeed able to fulfill those desires audiences had and since then has sparked interest in science fiction and stem fields for young women.
The difference between Ellen Ripley and her male counterparts would be that Ripley is a woman. However, Cameron when directing the movie did not treat her any differently instead Ripley is portrayed identically to her male counterparts. This clip shows how that is the case. https://youtu.be/LY2wGD6-j0Y
A couple major take aways from this clip would be:
1) Ripley is gearing up to fight the alien by herself.
- She is leaving two men behind while she does this. Which is both stereotypical of the male action hero to face the final challenge alone but right before she leaves she also gears up not just taking weapons out of the armory but building upon them and setting them up in a way that just makes her more powerful. The dual-gun set up she uses makes sense within the plot of the movie in order to kill the monster but also from an audiences perspective makes her far more enrapturing as an action hero.
- Ripley’s appearance in this scene, where she is the primary character on screen and really only has to share the screen with the weapons themselves, has her shown sweaty and gross covered in grime and bruises. None of the shots are used to establish her beauty but instead are entirely focused on her functionality as the action hero. Focusing heavily on her hands and what she is doing not how she is looking.
This liberal feminist perspective presented in this sequel film became one of the facets of the Alien franchise that has kept it culturally and critically relevant since its’ premier. Aliens (1986) seeks for the audience to view Ripley not as the female action star but as just another action star who is a woman. Ripley breaks into the male dominated action star sector and can slug it out with the best of them. Ripley’s character would pave the way for other women to adopt similar roles in the future. Aliens isn’t a woman’s action movie but an action movie that stars a woman. That is to say this film isn’t marketed towards women but to a general audience and by doing that elevates Ripley’s position from just a hero that women can enjoy to one that can be equal to and surpass those action heroes across pop culture.