James Cameron’s Aliens is one of the best sequels ever made. And, at 137 minutes, it manages to function as a character-focused piece just as well as a breathtaking action-packed rollercoaster ride. Special attention is paid to expanding the character of Ellen Ripley and, while not universally (given there are so many of them), the space marines are decently fleshed out individuals as opposed to fodder for the snarling Xenomorphs. It also expands the mythology by introducing the Queen Xenomorph and some more of the shady inner-workings of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Like Ridley Scott’s original film, it’s just about perfect. However, unlike Scott’s film, the majority of its deleted scenes are actually pretty solid and don’t detract from the overall pacing of the narrative.
There’s even an argument to be made that the deleted scenes (which can be viewed courtesy of the Director’s Cut on the home media for the film) make Aliens even better. Below are the highlights, so decide for yourself if they make it better, worse, or just as good.
1) Ripley’s Daughter
Having Ripley become a maternal figure to the orphaned Newt is one of the very best parts of Aliens, and of the franchise as a whole. But it works even better when there’s some context attached to it, at least in terms of fleshing out Ellen Ripley. Was the scene of Burke visiting Ripley before the big mission fully necessary? No, because the Ripley-Newt dynamic plays perfectly fine in the theatrical cut. But it’s still a terrific scene, and one that Sigourney Weaver was upset to see excised.
Burke approaches Ripley as she’s sitting in what appears to be a sparsely populated forest. But it’s all a projection, and she’s really indoors. She’s been asleep for a long time, and we learn that she’s asked Burke to find information about her daughter, who she hasn’t seen since she departed for her doomed trip aboard the Nostromo. Burke gives her a photo of a 66-year-old woman, who he informs her has passed away. Ripley cries and tells Burke she had promised her daughter she would be home from the Nostromo voyage in time for her 11th birthday. Ripley ended up missing the vast majority of her daughter’s life, and we feel her grief. This gives her scenes with Newt a certain extra edge, as Newt serves as an opportunity for Ripley to gain some closure over her flesh-and-blood daughter’s loss of life.
2) Hadley’s Hope
Aliens works just fine without us ever meeting the residents of Hadley’s Hope, but it’s a neat addition, nonetheless. A tracking shot shows the terrain of LV-426, desolate and grim even before the Xenomorphs take it over. It’s a fantastic visual, of course, but the scene also provides something the theatrical cut does not: context.
We learn that the company, Weyland-Yutani, is pretty much directly responsible for having one of the colonists investigate what turns out be the same crashed alien ship where John Hurt’s Kane was Facehugged in the first film. Clearly Weyland-Yutani knows the location is dangerous, but they don’t care, making everyone’s death in Aliens fully on them. This includes the deaths of Newt’s family, starting with her father.
3) Newt’s Family
For the most part, Aliens‘ scary scenes were left in. What was excised were character moments and a major action set piece. But there was one spooky part left on the cutting room floor, and that was the death of Newt’s father. Naturally, it wasn’t cut out because it was too scary or anything, but rather because Cameron and crew didn’t want to establish Newt as a presence until she’s found in the vents by Ripley and the space marines.
We find out that the coordinates Weyland-Yutani has wanted investigated was the site of Kane’s Facehugging when Newt’s parents drive towards it. The big, curved ship is recognizable. This means we also know something they don’t: that they should stay far away from it, no matter what the company says. But, Newt, who is onboard the vehicle alongside her brother, Timmy, and her mother, Annie, hears what the audience hear, which is her father’s excitement. He feels they’ve stumbled upon a big score, especially how he’s been given the go-ahead by his supervisor to keep whatever he finds. Annie suggests they call it in, but he says they should get a closer look, so they even know what to call it in as. But he never gets the chance to make that call, because when Newt and Timmy’s parents return to the vehicle, their father has a Facehugger on him. We never see its spawn burst out of him, nor do we find out how Timmy or Annie die, but we get the gist.
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4) The Sentries
Aliens already has more action sequences than you can shake a stick at, so it’s somewhat understandable why the whole sentries sequence was excised. But like everything that made the final cut, it’s flat-out great.
The movie does a great job of making the viewer feel like there’s not just one Xenomorph around the corner, but a dozen. Hadley’s Hope is chock full of them, and you truly feel that even when the film isn’t outright showing you them. But the sentries scene helps further cement just how outnumbered Ripley, Newt, and the space marines are. Hicks, Hudson, and Ripley watching the bullet cache gradually (but rapidly) decrease helps the viewer feel the walls closing in on the remaining characters. Plus, it’s just really cool seeing the line of sentry guns blasting apart the Xenomorphs as they skip across the corridor walls and ceiling.
5) Ripley Talks to Newt About Her (Other) Daughter
At about an hour and a half into the Director’s Cut, Newt and Ripley discuss the latter’s deceased daughter. It’s a tender moment, but one that had to be excised given the removal of the early scene between Ripley and Burke.
It takes place when Ripley is laying Newt down to sleep, unfortunately in the room where Burke releases a Facehugger. But, before Mr. Facehugger tries to do his thing, Newt and Ripley recap what they had seen earlier in the day. Namely, how an Alien burst out of a female colonist’s chest. Newt asks, “Did one of those things grow inside her?” Ripley responds “I don’t know, Newt. That’s the truth.” Newt asks “Isn’t that how babies come? I mean, people babies? They grow inside you.” Ripley says, “No, that’s very different.” Newt asks, “Did you ever have a baby?” Ripley chokes through her reply of “Yes, I did. I had a little girl.” Newt asks the fair but heartbreaking question, “Where is she?” Ripley says “She’s gone.” Newt, who has seen more than anyone ever should, especially at such a young age, immediately knows what that means. She says, “You mean dead.”
6) Foreshadowing the Queen
Ripley saving Newt from the Queen Xenomorph is one of the Alien franchise’s most iconic. And, really, it works for us to even learn the Queen Xenomorph is a thing that exists just by seeing it. We learn there’s a Queen right alongside Ellen Ripley.
But, in the Director’s Cut, there’s a little bit of foreshadowing that works well enough, and it doesn’t detract from the impact of the reveal given how even people who haven’t seen the movie have undoubtedly seen pictures of the Queen, perhaps even heard the line “Get away from her, you bitch.” Even still, the Queen foreshadowing gives Bill Paxton’s Hudson a few more lines, which is never a bad thing. He speculates that the colony it “maybe like an ant hive” to which Vasquez replies “Bees, man. Bees have hives.” Hudson replies “You know what I mean. There’s, like, one female that runs the whole show.” Bishop chimes in with “Yes, the queen.” Hudson says “Yes, the mama. She’s badass, man. I mean, big.” Vasquez says “These things ain’t ants, estúpido,” to which Hudson says he knows.
7) Dwayne, Meet Ellen. Ellen, Meet Dwayne
While Ripley and Newt’s dynamic is Aliens‘ best, there’s also a ton of charm in her interplay with Hicks. Of all the marines, he’s the only one who really seems to give her a chance from the beginning, and as the movie progresses his respect for her grows only more obvious.
It’s clear that he’s a great romantic interest for her and were it not for the events in the opening of Alien 3, that’s almost certainly where things would have gone. Towards the end of the Director’s Cut of the film, once Ripley is about to go out on her solo mission to rescue Newt, she has a nice moment with Hicks. She says that she’ll see him afterwards, addressing him by his last name. He tells her his first name is Dwayne, to which she replies with her first name, Ellen. It’s a nice little moment, one worthy of ending up in the theatrical cut.
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