Aliens / Fridge - TV Tropes

Fridge examples for Aliens.

Fridge Horror

It's considered a strange fluke of luck that Ripley's shuttle was actually discovered, and it might have gone flying through the universe forever, with Ripley still asleep. However, it is *because* the shuttle is discovered that every character in the movie (and possibly the next two) that dies meets their fate. After all, it's not explicitly spoken but strongly implied that Burke is responsible for the colonists exploring the alien wreck because he wanted them to be impregnated so that he could somehow... make a profit from the R&D? Burke also knows of the alien wreckage only because Ripley told him the story. So, the colonists had lived on the planet for 20 or so years without a problem until Ripley's shuttle is discovered and she told the suits about the alien presence on the planet. It might have been better for all involved for her to have never been rescued...
- Although I doubt Weyland-Yutani failed to notice that the team they sent to investigate a crashed Alien ship vanished without a trace...
  - It's quite possible that the W-Y execs who sent the Nostromo out in the first place buried the records after an expensive ship and its crew failed to report back. Meaning the company as a whole did in fact forget about the whole thing. The Fridge Horror there is that the company doesn't even remember what it did to Ripley and the Nostromo. Possibly because the people who signed off on the orders are long dead.
  - It's also quite likely that Burke didn't believe Ripley's story (or thought it was exaggerated), and that he sent the colonists to check that particular grid coordinate just to verify that there was nothing there — not as part of a nefarious plot to have the colonists impregnated.
  - The point is that Burke wouldn't have sent the team to investigate the crashed Alien ship if Ripley hadn't been found.
  - Honestly, there's a good chance that the whole reason the efforts to colonise and terraform the planet in the first place were because the ship and crew went missing after investigating. They know something is there but with the signal down they don't know where. There's never any logical reason given for being on the planet, no mention of resources or important things going on nearby. It's likely the company never abandoned the Alien project and Ripley's recovery just let them know exactly where to look. It even makes the boardroom scene make more sense, they've kept her there for hours making her tell the same story over and over until she's completely stressed out and snaps at them, thus allowing them to write her off officially as unstable and unreliable. It's likely the only reason Ripley was allowed to live in the first place was because everyone who was responsible for the initial incident would already be dead.
- Whether Ripley was found or not, the Aliens would still be there and the company was still terraforming the planet. The longer the ship went undiscovered the larger the civilian population would be and the larger the casualties would be when it was finally found. The really horrifying thing is that the movie is one of the better scenarios for how things could have gone down.
The heartwarming exchange of first names between Ripley and Hicks — it was the last time they ever spoke to each other. If you take the third film as canon, however.
Though she's certainly the one most human audiences would root for, Ripley is not the only Mama Bear in the film, since the Alien Queen holds back when Ripley is only threatening the eggs, then pursues after Ripley decides to torch them (as the eggs start to open, meaning she and Newt were dangerously close to getting facehugged by them; if not for that, it almost seems like the two might've gotten away with less incident). Ripley also causes her ovipositor to be ripped off, which even aside from the physical pain is a very, very personal kind of injury (assuming of course that the xenomorphs value that kind of thing the way most intelligent creatures would) — is it even possible for that part to grow back? For that matter, Ripley herself was only lost for so long (and thus separated from her own daughter for the rest of her life) due to the first incident with the xenomorph onboard the Nostromo, so there's sort of a revenge cycle to the whole thing, too. So although the Alien Queen is responsible for the slaughter and consumption of quite a lot of humans, it could still be said there's some tragedy on both sides of the situation — as Ripley herself put it (albeit directed mainly at Burke's cruel behavior), "I'm not sure which species is worse".
- Ripley was clearly running on a burning, hateful desire to get some payback from the creatures. Which is indeed tragic, because had she accepted the Queen's offering to leave, the xenos were just scant minutes from being vaporized anyway, and all the events in the sequel would have been avoided. Of course, one can hardly blame her from acting out on such emotions, because seriously, screw the xenomorphs.
  - It is quite likely that Ripley did intend to just leave. She was just backing away, and it wasn't until one of the eggs she was passing opened that Ripley gave the queen a look that said, "Bitch, please!" and opened up a can of whoop-arse on the egg chamber. So really, the queen brought Ripley's wrath down upon herself. If she'd just let Ripley leave, she could have lived happily ever after. (Well, until she got a nuclear explosion in the face...)
  - It's also likely that the queen had nothing to do with the egg hatching. She just lays the eggs; it's never stated she can command a specific egg to hatch at a specific time.
  - Technically, she does control the eggs. It is established in the comics that the queens are both extremely intelligent and latent psychics. She did indeed command the egg to open. See the below point.
The idea that one of the xenos was able to sneak aboard the dropship without anyone noticing is pretty creepy. The Marines swept the colony complex yet still didn't find the one that kills Spunkmeyer and Ferro. Given how smart the xenos are, they were probably hiding in the complex to begin with and were observing the Marines from the moment they arrived planetside. Yet that xeno waited until after the Marines got attacked in the atmosphere processor before killing Ferro. The xenos were toying with the humans from the very beginning.
- Which actually makes sense, as the comics point out an Alien Queen is smart, if not smarter, than most humans. One comic states that they rate above figures like Einstein and Hawking in mental processing ability, and possess latent telepathic powers. Yes, they can read your mind, and influence your dreams. Sweet dreams!
When in the nest, everyone is ordered to unload their weapons due to their ammo possibly causing damage to important equipment that could result in the atmosphere processor exploding. Vasquez and Drake counteracted the orders by using spare weapons clips that Vasquez was carrying, allowing for the smart guns to be used when the shit hits the fan and provided cover for the surviving marines to get to the APC. Had it not been for Vasquez and Drake being insubordinate to the orders to give up their ammo, there's a good chance that all of them wouldn't have made it out of the nest alive.

Fridge Brilliance

The addition of the Ripley's daughter subplot adds in a small bit of Fridge Brilliance. Ripley is the only one who's able to get anything out of Newt when she's first found. Of course a mother would be better than the Marines at getting information out of an uncooperative child.
- Also, would the Colonial Marines bother spending money and time training a combat medic in psychology, especially for children?
  - It's implied in the novel that Dietrich does have a certain amount of training in this area; she's able to tell that Newt isn't too far gone to be brought back, and after Ripley manages to get through to Newt, Dietrich orders that nobody — including Ripley — quiz her about what happened, as forcing her to relive it might end up driving Newt back into silence.
- Once she starts talking, Ripley's also the only person to listen to Newt who ends up being a mine of tactical information. The Marines were either too arrogant or (later) panicked to recognise the value of a survivor, something Ripley immediately seizes upon.
- Their plots mirror each other: Ripley's a mother looking for a daughter, and Newt's a daughter looking for a mother. Hence, the reason Newt calls Ripley "Mommy" upon beating the Xenomorph Queen.
- This is still even brilliant without the addition of the Amanda Ripley subplot. The fact is that Ripley is a survivor of the xenomorph, and Newt is as well. They both have experienced the horror of the xenomorph first hand, and Ripley seems to know how to reach Newt because she knows the horror that the little girl has experienced. In fact, Sigourney Weaver explained that originally Cameron had Ripley's motivation for going back to LV-426 out of revenge. However, Weaver stated that she didn't picture Ripley's motivation being revenge. It was after talking with Cameron more that Cameron came up with the idea that she joined the mission to LV-426 to save other potential survivors, and since she didn't get there to save more survivors of Hadley's Hope, Newt becomes the sole focus of Ripley's mission to save someone from what happened.
Newt's knowledge of the air vents and where they lead to make a lot more sense with the additional scene with her family. She says "all the kids play there" which implies it's a regular thing. She's also likely had a lot of extra practice travelling through them since the aliens started attacking.
- In the novelization and the director's cut, she and the other kids play Hide and Seek in them, which she's champion at since she's small enough to fit in places no-one else can.
Why was Hicks out of commission even though he was only burned by the acid? Because he breathed in some of the fumes of the burning. His lungs were being burned on the inside.
- Bishop stated he gave Hicks morphine to be able to help him deal with his pain from the burns. Bishop states earlier that he "cannot harm or allow harm to come to a human being", meaning that the reason why Hicks was out of commission was due to Bishop following his base programming and giving Hicks morphine to keep him from feeling pain and allowing him to not risk farther harm to himself.
Near the end of the first movie, Ripley is trying to flee the Nostromo and an automated self-destruct countdown voice can be omnipresently heard. This time, she's *running back in* during an automated self-destruct countdown voice, and might very well be noticing that when she's in the elevator on the way back down.
During the APC escape sequence, an Alien attacks the APC and Ripley ends up running over it, crushing its skull under the tires and splashing acid blood underneath the vehicle. This probably had something to do with the transaxle breaking shortly afterwards...
In the end, Ripley enters deep into the lair and manages to get out alive with Newt. In the process, she encounters only a few xenomorphs and their queen ends up pursuing her alone. That's because the preceding attacks of the "endless hordes" actually resulted in the deaths of most of the grown up xenomorphs and the majority of the surviving still prowl the base in search of the Marines.
It might seem odd that the Alien Queen would impale Bishop, given that the xenomorphs can tell what is a human and what is an android, and they usually don't go after them unless they are a threat, something the Queen obviously knew. However, while the Queen had not seen Bishop, she knew he had rescued Ripley, the human who had just annihilated her entire hive. This meant Bishop was an enemy and she went for him first to avoid another possible save scenario. Another possibility is that the Queen was attempting to impale Ripley, but missed and hit Bishop instead.
- In a scene from the novelization, after Bishop emerges from the tube he was crawling down to get to the Uplink Tower, he encounters a xenomorph and it disregards him. He surmises that the reason why the alien didn't attack him was because he had no heartbeat or any other indicators used by the aliens to track down potential hosts. In short, the alien didn't see him. If it was from a previous draft, that would explain how Bishop got hit: the Queen saw Ripley and didn't see Bishop in front of her. Bishop inadvertently saved Ripley from being killed at that moment.
  - Though the xenos don't see androids as viable breeding options, they do see them as threats. So, they act accordingly. In the novel, Bishop makes no threatening movements nor impedes the xeno, so it leaves him alone.
Ripley's accusation against Burke seems like he is engaging in some kind of very convoluted scheme. With only about an hour until the station is going to explode, he's relying upon the team to transport an infected Ripley and Newt back to the Sulaco? Once there, how would he "sabotage" the pods, especially if he would likely be among the first to be put to sleep, or at least certainly not the last? Well, an easier explanation would be that he was simply trying to kill Ripley when he released the facehuggers because she had specifically threatened to press (very serious) charges against him which would make him responsible for the death of the entire colony. However, it's not exactly like he can reply to her accusation in front of the soldiers with a "That's crazy-talk, I was only trying to kill you", can he?
Many people seem to find Burke as trustworthy due to when we first see him in the scene where Ripley wakes up at Gateway Station and seem shocked by his Heel–Face Turn later on in the film. But viewers miss one thing: the first scene we see Burke in is the start of a nightmare that Ripley is having. Meaning that the Burke who introduces himself is actually not really Burke, and that she had met Burke off-screen, fell asleep, and then had the nightmare that incorporated a kinder/friendlier version of him. That means the first time we meet Burke for real is in the deleted scene with him delivering information about Amanda, and he is clearly not as warm or charming to her as we first see him. That means that Burke could have always been as he was in the latter half of the film and Ripley didn't notice.
Speaking of Burke, his whole plan fits in with him being simply an opportunist and a manipulator. Seeing the chance to get rich if Ripley's story is true, he sends the colonists on LV-426 out to look for the possible alien ship. He might actually be planning on the colonists getting wiped out, since that eliminates people who might try to claim a finders fee. When one plan (finding the alien species and getting back off the planet) falls apart, he opportunistically tries to infect Ripley and Newt, probably planning on framing it as a tragic accident and counting on the Marines to freeze the two so they can get medical attention later. When THAT plan goes south, he's still savvy enough to fake Gorman out by just yelling "Do something!" when the xenos attack- he certainly perceives that Gorman is smarting from his earlier failures and feeling useless, so he appeals to the Lieutenant's desire to redeem himself. Burke might even have gotten away, if not for the sole alien posted up outside the back door of Medical.
After the destruction of the dropship, Ripley asks Hicks how long it would take for the group to be declared overdue before they can expect a rescue mission to be sent. Hick's response is "17 days." In the theatrical cut, this number doesn't make much sense. However, with the Special Edition, we get a good reason for such a long period of time that Earth would wait before they would send a rescue mission. When introduced to Hadley's Hope, two of the residents talk about the grid coordinates they received from Earth to check out. When asked about why, one of them says it takes two weeks to send a message to Earth and another two weeks to get a response. Two weeks is 14 days. That means that Earth was waiting the typical two weeks for a message from the marines to find out what happened and send a report. If no message was received in the two weeks or within the three days later (making it 17 days total), the marines would be declared overdue and a rescue mission would be prepped and sent.
- Although you have to wonder at the usefulness of a rescue mission having to come from Earth. While it's not specifically stated how long it takes to make the trip from Earth to LV-426, it's long enough to make it worthwhile for everybody to go into hypersleep, so it's going to be a hell of a long time for any survivors to hold out. Logically, there should be a backup team waiting in orbit on the Sulaco.
  - Not necessarily. Time spent in hypersleep is time not consuming resources. A person in hypersleep won't need food, or entertainment, or as much oxygen, or a need to keep the ship heated. Keeping the crew in hypersleep until it's absolutely necessary they be awake is a serious cost cutting measure. The trip itself is presented each time as something casual, fast enough that if something was wrong they'd arrive in time to actually do something about it. Clearly ships have become faster in the six decades since the Nostromo was sent on it's mission.
  - That is true. about the ships being faster. In the original film, Lambert calculated that with the time it took to land, explore and repair the Nostromo after it was damaged on landing, it would be "three months" to get back to Earth.
  - Also, Hudson stated “four more weeks and out” after the survivors realize the atmosphere processor took damage and that it’s going to explode. So, taking into account that messages reach Earth in two weeks, and the three day buffer before being declared overdue, one can only assume that the space travel time itself is two weeks, accounting for Hudson’s “four more weeks and out” comment. So, they’d have to wait for roughly a month and a couple of days before rescue could arrive. That certainly puts Newt’s survival into perspective, especially since Ripley tells Hudson that Newt survived longer than the 17 days without weapons and training. Newt literally earned a Took a Level in Badass due to how long she was able to survive.
- Pretty sure the line was actually, "How soon after we're overdue can we expect a rescue?" Given that Ripley expected to reach the Outer Rim (in the first movie) in about five weeks and hoped to be picked up by then, and this was in a shuttle, seventeen days may just be the travel time from the nearest military ship to the planet, due to faster/stronger engines.
Some were surprised by how popular the character of Hudson proved, between mostly being The Friend Nobody Likes due to his smart-ass behavior, and The Load because he spends half the film freaking out over their situation. But Hudson's also the Audience Surrogate, since honestly, he acts the way the majority of people would in that situation. Most of us want to imagine that we'd be Ripley, Hicks, or Vasquez, but we know that if it comes down to it, we would be Hudson. It helps that, despite all his freaking out, he does come through when the feces really hit the fan.
A kind of dark example. The Xenomorph Queen revealing herself to be on the Sulaco by attacking Bishop is essentially a chess pun: Queen takes Bishop. Clever.

Fridge / Aliens

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