14 Days of Screenplays, Version 3.0 -- Day 10: Aliens

Today is Day 10 of the "14 Days of Screenplays, Version 3.0" challenge and the featured screenplay is for the movie Aliens (1986). You can download the script from myPDFscripts.com here.

Background: The movie was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, winning two. James Cameron was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Writing on his screenplay, based on James Cameron and David Giler & Walter Hill, based on characters by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. The movie currently has an 8.4 rating on IMDB.com and is #54 out of its top 250 best movies.

Here's a treat: An interview (in 4-parts) with Cameron from 1986.

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4



I want to give time for people to weigh in about the script, those who have read it for the challenge as well as anyone else who has read the script in the past. I'll update this post with my thoughts on the script later.

What did you think of Aliens?

For links to all 14 scripts in the challenge, go here.

And remember: We'll be reading 1 script per day and discussing them through November 22. I'll be posting something everyday at 4PM U.S. Eastern Daylight Time / 1PM PST for your comments.

The script for Day 11 of the challenge is Little Miss Sunshine, available at myPDFscripts.com.

UPDATE: Posted as an update in the original post, but I'm re-posting here for those who might otherwise miss it.

I'd never read the script for Aliens, so it was interesting going through the story on the page and slogging through the mush which is my brain cells nowadays to dredge up memories from having seen the movie over 2 decades ago. As usual, GITS readers lasered in on some of the story's key themes that also struck me. In this case, I want to spotlight two points. The first from cfan:

And, to Cameron's credit, he built a great inner conflict for Ripley in the midst of a story that could easily have been all external conflict. The theme of lost and found motherhood (and humanity) is excellent throughout.

The next from Lalithra Fernando:

The more interesting theme, I thought, was one of greed. Greed is a moving force in this story.

Greed is why Ripley is saved--the rescuers were looking for salvage and thus money.

Greed is why the Aliens are unleashed--Burke calls it in w/o any warnings and the family ventures inside after claiming the ship for themselves.

These are the dual thematic engines that propel the emotional throughline of the script (the battle between the humans and aliens driving the Plotline).

GREED

The theme is introduced in the script's very first side of dialogue (P. 1):

LEADER
Bio-readout are all in the green.
She's alive. Well, there goes our
salvage, guys.

The team disappointed to find a live human being when they thought they were going to score some cash from space salvage.

Greed is evident over and over again throughout the script, both on a personal level (individuals) and a macro level (the company). Per the latter:

P. 7
VAN LEUWEN
Look at it from our perspective,
please. You freely admit to
detonating the engines of, and
thereby destroying an M-Class
star freighter. A rather expensive
piece of hardward...

INSURANCE INVESTIGATOR
Forty-two million in adjusted dollars.
That's minus payload, of course.

P. 10
BURKE
Well, the corporation co-financed that
colony with the Colonial Administration,
against mineral rights. We're getting
into a lot of terraforming...'Building
Better Worlds.'

P. 35
GORMAN
(to Burke)
Looks like your company can write
off its share of this colony.

BURKE
(unconcerned)
It's insured.

P. 56
RIPLEY
I say we take off and nuke the
entire site from orbit. It's
the only way to be sure.

BURKE
Whoah! Hold on a second. This
installation has a substantial
dollar value attached to it --

P. 57
BURKE
Look, this is a multimillion dollar
installation. He can't make that
kind of decision. He's just a grunt!

And then on a personal level:

P. 13 (Russ Jorden, Newt's father, and his family)
JORDEN
(a gloating cackle)
Look at this fat, juicy magnetic
profile. And it's mine, mine, mine.

ANNE
Half mine, dear.

P. 19 (Drake, a soldier, waking up from hyper-sleep)
DRAKE
They ain't payin' us enough for this, man.

P. 67
RIPLEY
Look, Burke, we had an agreement!

BURKE
I know, I know, but we're dealing
with changing scenarios here. This
thing is major, Ripley. You gotta
go with its energy. Look, you're
the representative of the company
who discovered this species, your
percentage is going to be some
serious money. I mean serious.

P. 82
RIPLEY
You know, Burke, I don't know which
species is worse. You don't see them
screwing each other over for a fucking
percentage.

Greed is what resulted in the human colonization of LV-426 in the first place. Greed is what drove Russ Jorden into the den of the alien eggs, reawakening them to violence. Greed is what led the company to send Ripley, Burke, and the military outfit to the planet. Greed is what causes Burke to make several choices which threaten human lives, including his nefarious plan at the end of Act Two (P. 81):

RIPLEY
He [Burke] figured he could get an alien
back through quarantine if one of us
was impregnated...whatever you call
it...then frozen for the trip back. Nobody
would know about the embryos we
were carrying. Me and Newt.

HICKS
Wait a minute. We'd know about it.

RIPLEY
The only way it would work is if
he sabotaged certain freezers on the
ship. Then he could jettison the
bodies and make up any story he liked.

So the element of greed, which was present in Alien -- primarily through Ash (the robot played by Ian Holm) overriding logic and concern for human life to follow a prime directive from the company to bring back any alien life-forms -- is present in the sequel, only elevated to a higher, and therefore more egregious level.

One element that was not in the original is the theme of motherhood. It gets introduced early on in the script (P. 4), where upon learning that she was in a state of frozen sleep for fifty-seven years, Ripley makes another startling discovery courtesy of Burke:

He opens his briefcase, removing a sheet of printer hard
copy, including a telestat photo.

RIPLEY
Is she...?

BURKE
(scanning)
Amanda Ripley-McClaren. Married
name, I guess. Age: sixty-six...
at time of death. Two years ago.
(looks at her)
I'm sorry.

Ripley studies the PHOTOGRAPH, stunned. The face of a
woman in her mid-sixties. It could be anybody. She
tries to reconcile the face with the little girl she once knew.

RIPLEY
Any.

BURKE
(reading)
Cancer. Hmmmm. They still haven't
licked that one. Cremated. Interred
Westlake Repository, Little Chute,
Wisconsin. No children.

Ripley gazes off, into the pseudo-landscape, into the past.

RIPLEY
No children.
(a beat, then)
I promised her I'd be home for her
birthday. Here eleventh birthday.

BURKE
Some promises you just can't keep.

Let's get one thing straight...Ripley can be one tough
lady. But the terror, the loss, the emptiness are, in
this moment, overwhelming. She cries silently.

This sets up perfectly the Ripley-Newt subplot, the story within the story that carries the greatest emotional heft. Amidst all the violence and the chaos on LV-426, the relationship that builds between Ripley and the little orphan girl Newt is for much of Act Two the eye of the storm, a place where the story quiets down and becomes quite human.

The crew first finds Newt on P. 38:

Ripley dives, squirms into the duct without thinking. Just
ahead she sees Newt enter a dark space and slam a steel
hatch. Ripley pushes the hatch open before the child
can latch it, and crawls in after her.

Newt is backed into a cul-de-sac in the tiny steel chamber.
Ripley shines her light around in amazement. It is a NEST.
A next built by a child. Wadded up blankets and pillows
line the space, mixed up with a haphazard array of TOYS,
STUFFED ANIMALS, DOLLS, CHEAP JEWELRY, COMIC
BOOKS, EMPTY FOOD PACKETS, even a battery-operated
TAPE PLAYER.

Newt edges along the far wall and dives for the hatch.
Ripley grabs her, controlling her in a bear hug. The kid
struggles wildly, like a cat at the vet's.

RIPLEY
It's okay, it's okay. It's over...
you're going to be all right now...
it's okay...you're safe.

Newt goes limp, almost catatonic. Her stare vacant,
traumatized. We read a dark nightmare world in her eyes.

We read a dark nightmare world in her eyes. Great scene description - and intended to arouse in us feelings of sympathy for Newt, so that we connect with Ripley who is obviously connecting with Newt. As we see in a tiny beat on P. 40:

Ripley kneels beside Newt, brushing the girl's unkempt hair
out of her eyes in a gently, maternal fashion.

RIPLEY
Here, try this. A little instant
hot chocolate.

Hot chocolate, brushing the girl's hair back, washing her face - all symbolic moments of Ripley reaching out to connect with Newt, which they do. After a big action sequence, the first battle between aliens and humans, Cameron slows the pace and lets the story settle into a human moment between Ripley and Newt (P. 64):

NEWT
My mommy always said there were no
monsters. No real ones. But there
are.

Ripley's expression become sober. She brushes damp hair
back from the child's forehead.

RIPLEY
Yes, there are, aren't there?

NEWT
Why do they tell little kids that?

Newt's voice betrays her deep sense of betrayal.

RIPLEY
Well, some kids can't handle it like
you can.

NEWT
Did one of those things grow inside
her?

Ripley begins pulling blankets up and tucking them in
around her tiny body.

RIPLEY
I don't know, Newt. That's the truth.

NEWT
Isn't that how babies come? I mean
people babies...they grow insid
you?

RIPLEY
No, it's different, honey.

NEWT
Did you ever have a baby?

RIPLEY
Yes. A little girl.

NEWT
Where is she?

RIPLEY
Gone.

NEWT
You mean dead.

Then later in the scene:

RIPLEY
Newt...I won't leave you, honey.
I mean it. That's a promise.

NEWT
You promise?

RIPLEY
Cross my heart.

NEWT
And hope to die?

Ripley flinches at the innocently grim expression.

RIPLEY
And hope to die.

Newt grabs her in a desperate hug and Ripley returns it
slowly, a bit overwhelmed at first, then with fierce
emotion. The child's need is so vast, Ripley prays she
has made a promise she can keep.

RIPLEY
Now go to sleep...and don't dream.

What a great little scene, working its way through so many levels of meaning and emotion: The fact that they both have faced the horror of the alien, they both have nightmares, they both have suffered loss -- Newt her family, Ripley her daughter, both have been betrayed -- Newt by her mother with her fabrication about there being no monsters and Ripley by Ash (in Alien) and the company. And so clearly each has moved -- psychologically -- into a kinship, Ripley Newt's surrogate mother and Newt Ripley's surrogate daughter.

Consider this: What if this subplot was absent from the script? Imagine how little meaning and connection to all the violence and death between humans and aliens. In my view, it is this relationship, where Ripley assumes the position of 'motherhood' re Newt, that gives the story its most resonate emotional substance. And that gets played out in an even more complicated and ironic fashion when the Final Struggle turns out to be Ripley the Mother versus Alien the Mother (P. 97):

A massive silhouette in the mist, the ALIEN QUEEN glowers
over her eggs like a great, glistening black insect-Buddha.
What's bigger and meaner than the Alien? His momma. Her
fanged head is an unimaginable horror. Her six limbs, the
four arms and two powerful legs, are folded grotesquely over
her distended abdomen. The egg-filled abdomen swells and
swells into a great pulsing tubular sac, suspended from a
lattice of pipes and conduits by a weblike membrane as if
some vast coil of intestine was draped carelessly among the
machinery.

A great beat to sympathize the Alien Queen, providing an equivalent of Ripley's Newt - the Alien Queen's 'children'. Then after the aliens take Newt, intent on using her as a cocoon, this happens (P. 102):

INT. CARGO LOCK

The Queen spins at the sound of door motors behind her. The
parting doors REVEAL an inhuman silhouette standing there.

Ripley steps out, WEARING TWO TONS OF HARDENED STEEL. THE
POWER LOADER. Like medieval armor with the power of a
bulldozer. She takes a step...the massive foot CRASH-CLANGS
to the deck. She takes another, advancing.

RIPLEY
Get away from her, you bitch!

Awesome line of dialogue. And befitting a mainstream commercial movie, Ripley defeats her Nemesis and saves Newt, leading to this Denouement beat (P. 105):

INT. HYPERSLEEP

Ripley sits at the edge of an open hypersleep capsule in
which Newt is lying. Behind them, already going under,
is Hicks and in a farther capsule, Bishop, wrapped in a
plastic membrane.

NEWT
Are we going to sleep all the way
back?

RIPLEY
That's right.

NEWT
Can we dream?

RIPLEY
Yes, honey. I think we both can.

Aliens is one of those rare cases where the sequel is equal to, if not better than the original. Cameron accomplishes that for a number of reasons, chief among them by making everything bigger (aliens, weaponry, action sequences), but also advancing the story, not content to do essentially a remake, but rather adding new thematic wrinkles:

* Ripley knows the horror of the aliens, while in Act One and the first part of Act Two, her crew mates don't.

* The lives of a lot more people are in jeopardy this time around on LV-426.

* Bishop turns out to be a Mentor character, not a Trickster like Ash.

But primarily Cameron elevates the material by weaving into the plot two key themes: Greed and Motherhood.

One final note: As I was finishing up the script, reading the lines about both Ripley and Newt being able to "dream" now, no longer tormented by nightmares, I suddenly thought of Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. Like Ripley, Clarice has been haunted by nightmares, tied to the violent death of a loved one in her past. And Clarice, too, takes on a type of maternal role - at least in her own (probably) subconscious mind - toward Catherine Martin, the last of Buffalo Bill's kidnapping victims. In fact, Hannibal Lecter flat out says to her, "And you think if you can save poor Catherine Martin, you can make them stop, you won't ever wake up in the dark to the screaming of the lambs?" Interesting that these two strong female leads have to get in touch with their maternal instincts and save a young girl / woman in order to silence their nightmares.