Aliens

Written by: James Cameron (story & screenplay), David Giler (story), Walter Hill (story), Dan O'Bannon (characters), Ronald Shusett (characters).

Imdb page.

Main characters:

Ellen Ripley
Rebecca "Newt" Jorden
Cpl. Dwayne Hicks
Bishop
Carter Burke
Pvt. Hudson
Lt. Gorman
Pvt. Vasquez
Sgt. Apone
Pvt. Drake
Pvt. Frost
Cpl. Ferro
Pvt. Spunkmeyer
Cpl. Dietrich
Pvt. Crowe
Pvt. Wierzbowski

*Note - This breakdown was done with the Special Edition, it contains extra footage not in the theatrical release.

EXT. SPACE/INT. LIFE BOAT - The life boat drifts through space. RIPLEY and JONESY the cat, asleep in a cryogenic chamber, are found by salvagers.

INT. SPACE STATION - Ripley rests in the station's sick bay. CARTER BURKE brings her Jonesy, tells her he's from "the company". He informs her that she was asleep for 57 years. Chest burster starts to pop out of Ripley.

INT. SPACE STATION - Ripley wakes from the nightmare. She doesn't want to sleep anymore.

INT. FALSE PARK - Burke wants to prep Ripley for her inquest but she's only interested in hearing about her daughter. Burke informs her that her daughter died from old age and had no children.

INT. INQUEST ROOM - Ripley fails to convince the inquest that an alien being was the cause of the death of her crew and the reason why she blew up the company's ship. Ripley is worried that there are still eggs in the derelict ship on that planet and that someone will get infected and bring an alien back to earth. She's told that there have been settler families on that planet for years and they've never seen an aliens. She is denied flight status.

EXT./INT. HADLEY'S HOPE/EXT. ALIEN DERELICT SHIP/INT. LAND ROVER - NEWT'S family (her, her father, mother, and brother) arrive at the point specified by the company back on Earth, finding the derelict space-craft from Alien. Newt and her brother are left behind in the rover as her mother and father go to investigate. They return a long while later with a face-hugger attached to her father's face.

INT. RIPLEY'S APARTMENT - Burke and LT. GORMAN tell Ripley that they've lost contact with the settlers. They try to recruit her to go along with a team of marines as a consultant. They'll give her back her flight status if she goes. Ripley refuses.

INT. RIPLEY'S APARTMENT -  Ripley wakes from another nightmare. She calls Burke to make sure they're heading out there to destroy the aliens, not to bring them back to Earth for study. Burke gives his word. Ripley says she is in.


INT. SULACO LOCKER ROOM - A look through the empty space-craft, the Sulaco. In the locker-room Ripley, Burke, and the marines wake from hyper-sleep.

INT. MESS HALL - Ripley isn't impressed by the marines' joking around - they're not taking this seriously enough. The marines aren't impressed by the new Lt. not eating with them. Ripley discovers that BISHOP is an android and warns him to stay away from her.

INT. HANGAR BAY - The Lt. briefs the marines. He doesn't know which marine is which. Ripley fails to get across how dangerous the aliens are, the marines are too cocky.

INT. HANGAR BAY - The marines prep for the drop to the planet. Ripley doesn't like feeling useless so she volunteers to do some work with a loader.

INT. ARMORY/INT. ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER/INT. DROP-SHIP - They drop from the Sulaco to the surface of the planet. Learn that this is only the second actual combat drop for the Lt. The marines are not thrilled by this news.

EXT. HADLEY'S HOPE - The drop-ship circles the settlement, no sign of life. They touch down, the APC rolls out. The marines hit the ground, move through the settlement, enter the main buildings.

INT. HALLWAYS - No signs of life but they find the aftermath of a battle - small arms fire and debris from small explosions. Motion trackers give a false hamster alarm. Find holes burned in the floors - "acid for blood" - Ripley's aliens do indeed exist. The Lt. feels that the area is secure, Ripley disagrees.

INT. HALLWAYS/INT. SICK BAY - Ripley, Burke, Bishop and the Lt. join the marines inside. No bodies have been found. They find face-huggers in specimen tubes. Movement on the motion-detectors - they find Newt living in the ventilation shafts.

INT. OPERATIONS - Lt. Gorman tries to interrogate Newt, gets nowhere. Ripley gets Newt to talk. PVT. HUDSON uses the computers to search for the colonists' personal data transmitters. Newt warns Ripley that the marines won't make any difference.

INT. MED LAB - Bishop is fascinated by the dead face-hugger he's examining.

INT. OPS - Hudson finds the location of the settlers.

INT. APC/EXT./INT. ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSING PLANT - The marines move in. Ripley, Lt. Gorman, Burke and Newt watch on monitors in the APC. The Lt. directs the marines. They encounter something Ripley hasn't sen before - the aliens are adapting the plant into a hive environment. Ripley realizes the marines' ammo will puncture the plant's cooling system - Burke advises loss of the cooling system will result in a nuclear explosion. The Lt. has SGT. APONE collect ammo, that they can only use small arms and flame units in there, but doesn't explain why. PVTs VASQUEZ and DRAKE secretly reload with regular ammo.

The marines find the colonists cocooned into the hive's walls. They find one COLONIST still alive, she begs them to kill her. A chest-burster bursts out of the colonist. The Sgt. flames the chest-burster. Aliens detach from the walls and attack the marines, all hell breaks loose. Vasquez and Drake open fire. The Lt. panics and becomes useless as marines die. Ripley drives the APCGorman gets hit by falling cases and knocked out. Hicks has to stop Vasquez from killing Gorman. They go over options - Ripley suggests returning to orbit and nuking the site. Burke objects but Hicks, now in charge, agrees with her.

EXT. HADLEY'S HOPE/INT. DROP-SHIP - They call in the drop-ship. But there's an alien on board which causes the drop-ship to crash. Newt suggests they get inside before night falls.

INT. OPS - They go over the weapons they managed to salvage, including four remote sentry guns. Hicks reveals that a rescue won't come until seventeen days after they've been declared overdue. Ripley takes charge, tells Hudson to call up a floor plan showing all the ways into Ops.

INT. OPS - Ripley forms a plan to set up a defense. Sentry guns are set and tested, doors welded, etc... Hicks gives Ripley a locator wrist device so he can find her if they get separated.

INT. MED LAB - Ripley puts Newt to bed. She gives Newt the locator device.

INT. MED LAB - Ripley, Bishop, Vasquez and Hudson speculate as to where the alien eggs are coming from - there must be a queen. Ripley wants the specimens destroyed Bishop says Burke gave instructions to transport the specimens back to Earth.

INT. OPS - Ripley confronts Burke. She found out that Burke is the one who ordered the colonists to investigate the alien derelict ship without giving them any warning.

INT. OPS - The aliens attack. The barricades and sentry guns barely hold them off.

INT. OPS - Bishop points out that the processing plant is emergency venting - it's cooling system was damaged earlier. It will go nuclear in four hours. Bishop volunteers to go out to the settlement's satellite uplink to manually patch in so he can call down the reserve drop-ship.

INT. CONDUIT - Bishop starts to crawl through the conduit to the uplink assembly.

INT. OPS - The aliens attack from a different direction. The second pair of sentry guns just barely holds them off. Hicks sends Hudson and Vasquez to walk the perimeter. Hicks shows Ripley his rifle.

INT. CONDUIT - Bishop crawls along.

INT. OPS - Hicks gives Ripley instructions in how to use the gun.

INT. MED LAB - Lt. Gorman is awake. Ripley goes to sleep with Newt under the bed.

EXT. UPLINK/INT. SULACO - Bishop patches into the satellite uplink. The remote drop-ship wakes up.

INT. MED LAB - Ripley wakes up, sees that the two living face-hugger specimens have been released in the room with her and Newt. Her rifle has been taken. The face-huggers attack. Ripley and Newt try to run but find they've been locked in. The glass walls are soundproof. They wave at the security camera.

INT. OPS - Burke turns off the monitor to the med lab's security camera.

INT. MED LAB - Ripley can't break the glass wall. She uses her lighter to set off the fire alarm.

INT. OPS - Hicks calls for Hudson and Vasquez to meet him at the med lab, grabs a fire extinguisher.

INT. MED LAB - One face-hugger wraps it's tail around Ripley's throat. Newt pins the second to the wall. Hudson shoots up the glass wall, Hicks smashes through. Hudson kills Newt's face-hugger. Hicks, Vasquez, and Lt Gorman kill Ripley's face-hugger. Ripley accuses Burke.

INT. OPS - Burke tries to weasel his way out of responsibility. Ripley points out that since the marines would have known that she and Newt were infected, the only way he could sneak the aliens through quarantine would be to sabotage the marines' sleep chambers. They decide to execute Burke. But the aliens cut the power. Hicks sends Hudson and Vasquez to check the corridors with motion detectors - they get strange readings.

Hudson and Vasquez return to Ops, they seal themselves in. The detectors show the aliens range to be right in the room with them, they can't figure out what they missed when sealing off entries. then Ripley remembers the ceiling is a drop-ceiling. Hicks pokes his head up, the aliens attack. They try to retreat to medical, but Burke gets there first and locks the doors. Hudson goes down fighting. They hold off the aliens as Hicks solders through the med lab door's lock.

INT. MED LAB - Burke runs into an alien.

INT. OPS - Getting through the door locks is taking too long. Newt leads them into the vent shafts.

INT. VENT SHAFTS - Newt leads the way to the landing pad. Vasquez is injured, can't move, Gorman goes back to help her. They run out of ammo, kill themselves with a grenade. The blast causes Newt to fall down past a vent turbine that Ripley and Hicks can't fit past, Newt slides down out of sight. Hicks says they can find her with the location device.

INT. HALLWAYS/INT. SEWER SYSTEM - Newt wades through the sewer system. Ripley and Hicks find her, start to cut through the hallway floor to get to her. An alien nabs Newt. Hicks and Ripley run.

INT. ELEVATOR - Hicks is injured by alien blood.

EXT. HADLEY'S HOPE - Ripley and Bishop get Hicks to the drop-ship.

INT. DROP-SHIP - Bishop pilots the drop-ship into the processing plant. Ripley loads up with guns.
She and Hicks exchange first names.

INT. PROCESSING PLANT - Ripley hunts for and finds Newt. They take a wrong turn into...

INT. THE QUEEN'S LAIR - ...a room filled with face-hugger eggs. They meet the QUEEN. Threatened by aliens, Ripley sets the eggs on fire then blows up the room with grenades. The furious Queen detaches herself from her birthing framework and comes charging after them.

INT. PROCESSING PLANT/INT. DROP-SHIP - Ripley and Newt ride the elevator up to the top to find the drop-ship gone. The Queen comes up a second elevator. The drop-ship hovers up behind them, Ripley and Newt jump on. They fly out and up into space as the processing plant explodes.

INT. HANGAR BAY - The alien Queen stowed away on the drop-ship, she climbs down and attacks. Ripley fights her off with the loading walker, finally jettisoning the Queen through an airlock into space.

INT. LOCKER ROOM - The survivors get into the hyper-sleep chambers. Ripley tells Newt it's now okay for them to dream.