F.A.Q.       WEAPONS        AWARDS

Despite being a small rescue ship, it was able to function and support all the systems and the hypersleep functions because it conserved energy and supplied only the most important life supporting functions. Not even the doors were powered. Novelization: But the ship was not completely dead. Like a body in frigid weather, the craft had withdrawn the power from its extremities to protect something vital deep within.

Also, according to the novelization Narcissus' beacon failed thus no ship could pick it up and they just assumed based on the radars that the floating lifeboat was just a space junk.

One might ask why the Company didn't find any traces of the alien on board the ship. The novelization points out that the data was tempered with. It doesn't say by who, but it's apparent that it was the Company responsible for it, erasing the bits of data that had anything to do with the alien.

According to the novelization, Amanda Ripley McClaren died of cancer.

Sulaco was the town in which most of Joseph Conrad's book entitled "Nostromo" took place.

 

James Cameron: The unnamed planetoid harboring the alien derelict ship, later named LV-426, was in fact a moon of a ringed gas giant, which was occasionally glimpsed in the sky in ALIEN. The gas giant does not appear in ALIENS because the exterior scenes on LV-426 have an unbroken cloud cover or overcast, and the space scenes are handled in a cursory manner, advancing the story without dwelling on the wonders of interstellar travel, which so many other films have done so well, as their primary reason d'etre.

James Cameron further explains:

You might say we approached LV-426 from the other direction, and the ringed gas giant companion was out of frame.

Acheron is the alternate name for LV-426. The serial name was an 'old' name that was replaced with the name Acheron once the planetoid was inhabited by the colonists. According to the novelization, there are 30 Atmosphere Processors scattered around Acheron, but only one colony.

In Greek mythology, Acheron is the river of woe and pain, in the underworld land of the damned. The name was given to the planet in older drafts of the script, the Alan Dean Foster novelization, the movie-comic as well as the RPG.

 

James Cameron: There's a deleted scene (re-inserted for Director's Cut/Special Edition) which depicted the discovery of the derelict by a mom-and-pop geological survey (i.e.: prospecting) team. As scripted, they were given the general coordinates of its position by the manager of the colony, on orders from Carter Burke. It is not directly stated, but presumed, that Burke could only have gotten that information from Ripley or from the black-box flight recorder aboard the shuttle Narcissus, which accessed the Nostromo's on-board computer. When the Jorden family, including young Newt, reach the coordinates, they discover the derelict ship.

Since we and the Nostromo crew last saw it, it has been damaged by volcanic activity, a lava flow having crushed it against a rock outcropping and ripped open its hull. Aside from considerations of visual interest, this serves as a justification for the acoustic beacon being non-operational.

In addition to that, the novelization further explains:

"It's blocked off from colony's detector by these mountains, and you know that surveillance satellites are useless in this kind of atmosphere."

"You couldn't pick up any infrared on this part of the planet: new air coming out of the atmosphere processor is too hot"

 

The Sulaco is so automated that it would be unnecessary. If another dropship was required, the APC was equipped to remote-pilot it down and so was the station on LV-426

 

Yes. He addressed it in 'The Bloody Best Of Fangoria' magazine saying that he deliberately changed the Alien lifecycle to include the Queen:

I find it somewhat irrelevant since as an audience member and as a filmmaker creating a sequel, I can really only be responsible to those elements which actually appeared in the first film and not to its "intentions." ALIEN screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's proposed life cycle, as completed in the unseen scene, would have been too restricting for me as a storyteller

He also mentioned the original lifecycle in 1986 in Monsterland magazine:

It's a fusion of the elements of the storyline I'd developed myself independent of ALIEN, especially in terms of life cycle of the organism"

Furthermore, from Lofficier.com:

But, you see, that (original alien lifecycle) was never seen at all. Yes, it's in contradiction to the reproductive cycle that was in the original script of the first film. But it's not in contradiction to what you saw in the film. What you saw in the film was a thousand eggs, one of them hatches, one of them goes through its life cycle, becomes an adult, and is killed. There is no connection between the adult and the future eggs. Now, in the scene that was apparently shot and cut, and which I never saw, in which Tom Skerrit and Harry Dean Stanton are turning into eggs, that closed the cycle. But, to me, that was completely irrelevant to what you actually saw in the film.

Unless you're an ardent fan of the film and studied what was taken out, which to me is irrelevant to the group experience of this movie, it's not a contradiction, it's merely an alternative explanation. And a more plausible one, really.

It was a conscious decision. Had the first film appeared in its complete form, then I would have had to take a different approach to the story. But I felt only a responsibility to what people saw within the first film, not the intentions of various people behind it.

 

To read more about the Queen visit http://www.jamescamerononline.com/TheQueen.htm

According to James Cameron:

1. Russ Jorden attacked, they radio for rescue.

2. Rescue party investigates ship...several members facehuggered... brought back to base for treatment.

3. Several "chestbursters" free themselves from hosts, escape into ducting, begin to grow.

4. Extrapolating from entomology (ants, termites, etc.), an immature female, one of the first to emerge from hosts, grows to become a new queen, while males become drones or warriors

James Cameron: An immature female, one of the first to emerge from hosts, grows to become a new queen, while males become drones or warriors. Subsequent female larvae remain dormant or are killed by males... or biochemically sense that a queen exists and change into males to limit waste. The Queen locates a nesting spot (the warmth of the atmosphere station heat exchanger level being perfect for egg incubation) and becomes sedentary. She is then tended by the males as her abdomen swells into a distended egg sac. The drones and warriors also secrete a resinous building material to line the structure, creating niches in which they may lie dormant when food supplies and/or hosts for further reproduction become depleted (i.e. when all the colonists are used up). They are discovered in this condition by the troopers, but quickly emerge when new hosts present themselves.

The novelization as well as The Dark Horse comics published in 1988 suggested that a regular Alien changes into Queen with the help of the so called Royal Jelly - a special food high in certain nutrients. Novelization: The chemicals in the jelly act to change the composition of the maturing pupa so that what eventually emerges is an adult queen and not another worker. Theoretically, any egg can be used to hatch a queen.

According to Shane Mahan, the Creature Effect Coordinator from Aliens, and Stan Winston on Aliens Collector's Edition DVD commentary, the Queen was 14 feet tall.

Excerpt from Anchorpoint Essays by Mike Lynch. To read the full essay click HERE

"The Queen is approximately four and one half meters tall, possesses an extremely powerful tail that is equal in length to the Alien's height, a cranial crown that is flattened (in comparison to the adult Alien) and extends approximately two meters beyond the back of the head, and possesses a set of secondary arms (giving the Alien a total of six limbs) that are approximately one third the length of the primary arms. When situated as part of a functioning hive the Queen is suspended from the hive ceiling via heavy resinous supports. Aside from the unusual structure of the cranial crown the most notable physical attribute is the large, translucent ovipositor that extends nearly 8 meters from the Queen's body. The ovipositor, like the Queen herself, is also suspended via resinous webbing.

The head of the Queen is one of the most striking aspects of the Alien's physical presence. Though the cranium is proportional to the Queen's body size and not much different in shape than that of the adult members of her brood, the crown is what sets her head apart from her offspring. This crown is thought to be more than just and ornamental aspect of the Alien's physiology - it is believed to be a key aspect in communication and inciting behavior among the brood.

There is a certain degree of audible communication that has been recorded as occurring among members of an however, it is thought that the vast majority of communication occurs via ultrasonic and bioelectric reception and emission, with a smaller portion occurring via biochemical means. The large flat surface of the Queen's crown would make an excellent emitter/receptor. As with the rest of the brood it is believed that the Queen's crown is covered with pore-like receptors and emitters designed for a wide array of sensory input as well as communication. As is discussed in the Sensory Abilities essay - thermal and olfactory reception are somewhat limited by prevailing environmental conditions and proximately - making these a secondary form of detection.

The surface of the crown affords the Queen an optimal means of receiving a greater degree of auditory and bioelectric input by increasing the amount of sensory pores that can be applied to a given form of detection. This, theoretically, increases the Alien's sensitivity to such stimuli, by allowing more input to be acquired. By the same token an inverse approach can be take to communicative abilities: the larger surface area of the crown enables more outward stimuli to be emitted for a broader range of detection among the brood. However, there appears to be a an extremely limited peripheral range of reception: The Queen's crown only curves very slightly when compared to the adult members of the hive, this would seem to indicate that the Queen's sensory reception is limited to the primary receptive range: approximately 100° radiating 50° laterally to either side from the vertical center line of the crown, and a peripheral reception area of an additional 10° on either side beyond that. This would also seem to indicate that the Queen might have a rather large blind area that represents the vast majority of the space directly behind the crown and body, but given the general state of immobility that the Queen sustains during her life this is not surprising, or unexpected. The brood, which is responsible for foraging and nest construction, would logically need a much broader range of reception - hence the apparent 360° range of detection for the adult nest mates. The Queen, for the most part, remains static and therefore takes a more passive role within the hive. It is not believed that the Queen often engages in hive defense, meaning that the incident on LV-426 between Lieutenant Ripley and the Queen was a rare example of the Alien's abilities.

A rather interesting and perplexing feature about the Queen is the presence of a set of small arms that extend from the chest. These arms are approximately one third the length of the creature's primary arms. Their extremely short length makes them appear useless with respect to the overall size of the Alien. It was originally believed that they were used for feeding, but the length and articulation of these arms would suggest that the head would have to be bent downward in an awkward fashion in order to feed. It has been an observed trait, among those creatures that use their limbs in feeding, that most have arms that are long enough to reach the mouth without having to crane the neck.

A second theory saw these arms as a variant of pedepalps and used in the stimulation of a drone during mating in a manner not unlike that employed by various arachnids. In such a scenario the secondary arms would be used as a means of stimulation - even perhaps while the Queen is holding the drone in place - by either tapping or stroking the drone in such a manner so as to incite release of the necessary spore to complete fertilization. However, given current theories on reproduction it isn't likely that these arms are used for mating.

Two recent theories have come to the forefront of this topic and are currently being considered as viable directions. The first is a re-examination of the arms being used for feeding while combining the stimulation concepts originally associated with theories on mating. The secondary arms may be used for holding an adult member of the brood for the purpose of trophallaxis. In this theory the Queen would hold an adult Alien in its primary arms and incite the regurgitation of food through tapping a stroking as applied by the secondary arms. Through this process the Queen would be able to ingest the required proteins and minerals needed to sustain her while suspended above the hive floor, and otherwise immobile. It's thought that this tactile stimulation from Queen to offspring is a rhythmic action combining taps and strokes over the captive Alien's torso and head.

The second theory is seen as an added use of the secondary arms in relation the above-mentioned incitement of trophallaxis. These smaller arms may be used for grooming as well - specifically the cleaning of the depositing end of the ovipositor. It's felt that periodically during sessions of grooming several of the resinous bindings holding the posterior end of the ovipositor are broken and the depositing end is grasped by the primary arms while the secondary arms work to clean out the orifice removing debris and coagulated fluids. Once grooming is complete the resin supports are repaired - or rebuilt - and the ovipositor is once again fully suspended."

James Cameron:  Don't ask me where it was from... there are some things man was not meant to know. Presumably, the derelict pilot became infested en route to somewhere and set down on the barren planetoid to isolate the dangerous creatures, setting up the warning beacon as his last act. What happened to the creature that emerged from him? Ask Ridley

I could provide plausible answers for, but they're no more valid than anyone else's. Perhaps his homeworld did know of his demise, but felt it was pointless to rescue a doomed person. Perhaps he was a volunteer or a draftee on the hazardous mission of bio-isolating these organisms. Perhaps he was a military pilot, delivering the alien eggs as a bio-weapon in some ancient interstellar war humans know nothing of, and got infected inadvertently

Since we and the Nostromo crew last saw it, it has been damaged by volcanic activity, a lava flow having crushed it against a rock outcropping and ripped open its hull. Aside from considerations of visual interest, this serves as a justification for the acoustic beacon being non-operational.

Starlog : Cameron did not want the model to appear in his film as it had in the first. He envisioned it as having been carried away, in the 56-year interim between the first and second film, by lava flows, which have embedded the derelict into a rock wall.

Sketches by James Cameron showing how the ship has been broken up and moved by the lava flow:

She decided to go back in order to get rid of her nightmares and for revenge.

James Cameron: there are a lot of soldiers from Vietnam, who have been in intense combat situations, who re-enlisted to go back again. Because they had these psychological problems that they had to work out. It's like an inner demon to be exorcised. That was a good metaphor for her character.

The entire colony was enormous in size, with multiple large complexes connected together.  And as seen in the movie, aliens retreated to the hive deserting the entire place. New played with other kids hiding in the vents before the colony became infested and she was the best in fitting in tight spots. That's why she got called Newt. That's how she survived the initial attack by going into small places no one else could fit and then when the alien warriors deserted the place and retreated into the hive under the heat exchanger, she moved around through the vent tunnels. By that point the place was relatively safe since aliens lied dormant in their hives.

The aliens in Aliens are like a human army and act like soldiers taking tactical decisions and maneuvers. They do what any enemy army would do and perform the well known warfare operations and ambushing attacks. According to James Cameron in his Starlog interview from 1987, the lone alien that took care of the dropship killed Ferro to crash the dropship and leave the marines on LV-426 and cut their ammo and gun supply. Not to mention it was able to operate the door inside of it. Later on in the movie we see the aliens successfully sneaking up on the marines from all directions, and meshing in with the environment making themselves invisible, like the camouflaged commandos. We see their efforts to exhaust the ammo of the sentry guns and then aliens retreating to make new plans. Typically for warfare operations, they cut the power to blind their enemy, split into groups/squads and quietly sneak in on them from above, below and the back - the lone alien that Burke encounters was a part of the ambushing team, trying to cut the marines off from the other side.

It's also worth noting that aliens behaved like military/special forces in hostage situation with Ripley and the Queen - They started moving in slowly because Ripley had a gun almost aimed at the Queen, they didn't want to risk it so they moved like all the other aliens in Aliens - like special forces, trying to get to the person holding a hostage by walking up very slowly, so they wont startle him. They did so until the Queen ordered them to back off.

 

The aliens of Aliens defeated a highly trained and highly equipped marines. Such approach represents how dangerous and terrifying aliens really are because they're going against military and they're portrayed as advanced military themselves. It's hard to see how lethal the aliens really are that well when unarmed weaker opponents are facing the alien. If an adult person beats up a smaller, helpless child it doesn't really show how tough he is, but if he beats up a person who's armed with knives and sticks and baseball bat then it's a different story. Also, one of the reasons why they chose the atmosphere processor for the nest is because it was a tactical location. Novelization: (The Queen choose) to incubate her eggs in the one spot in the colony where we couldn't destroy her without destroying ourselves. beneath the heat exchangers at the processing plant.

From the script:

RIPLEY
Could it be intelligent?

BISHOP
Hard to say. It may have been
blind instinct...attraction to
the heat of whatever...but she
did choose to incubate her eggs
in the one spot where we couldn't
destroy her without destroying
ourselves.

Also: They could also have some kind of collective intelligence.(...) Bishop talked about that, before he left

James Cameron: I never got the sense in the first film that the alien actually had an intelligence that would allow it to manipulate their technology. But I didn’t see that necessarily as a barrier here because certainly these creatures have been around longer. The alien in the first film had only been alive for 24 hours. It was still an infant, even thought it’d grown full size. These aliens have had weeks or months to figure things out. (...) I’m not saying they’re technological but I think they’re rudimentary stuff. So the implication here is that they’re actually pretty clever. And I think at the end of the film its clear when the alien queen knows how to operate an elevator if nothing else

In the 1979 novelization of the first movie, Ash describes alien's intelligence as being "at least that of a dog, and probably more than a chimpanzee"

Another characteristic that wasn't shown in the first movie but was described in ALIENS novelization is the alien poison. Aliens sting their victims with their tails and inject a temporarily paralyzing poison so they can easily transport them to the hive. and cocoon them. This is why in the movie we see the victims in the hive waking up, like Newt when she got abducted. It was the poison wearing out. Novelization: It's a muscle-specific neurotoxin. Affects only the nonvital parts of the system; leaves respiratory and circulatory functions unimpaired.

 

Another noteworthy characteristic: For all they knew, the aliens had poor hearing and located them by smell.

There are some small behavioral differences between the ALIENS Warriors and the Original alien from ALIEN. James Cameron likes to have everything logical so one change was made. The original acts little differently. It kills an unarmed opponent and drags him off (Brett). It doesn't kill an armed opponent, and drags him off as well (Dallas). Then it butchers an armed and unarmed opponent and leaves both of them to rot (Parker and Lambert). The Aliens' actions in ALIENS are much more clear and logical; priority one, take back alive. If that's impractical, kill.

It's all beautifully done, everything, the designs and the way they're executed." - H.R. Giger

Yes. James Cameron:

Even with the Queen's vast egg laying capacity, the Aliens are still a parasitic form, requiring a host from a different species to create the warrior or Queen stages of the life cycle. Since the warriors are bipedal with two arms (H.R. Giger's original design), it may be inferred that the facehugger is an undifferentiated parasite, which lays an egg inside a host, but that the resulting form (chestburster through adult) has taken on certain biological characteristics of its host. This would account for the degree of anthropomorphism in the design.

The Alien in the first movie wasn't a full adult yet -  the individual in ALIEN never reached maturity. In time his head would get ridges and would transform into a fully adult creature that we see in 'Aliens'. The young alien of the first movie looked pretty much the same as the adult underneath the dome. Aliens are "born" with a smooth head, and this cover falls off after a while, exposing the ridges. Supporting this thesis, the chestburster in "Aliens" had a smooth head.

James Cameron: The Alien in the first film had only been alive for 24 hours. It was still an infant, even thought it’d grown full size. (...) The Alien head in the first film was very smooth. The top of the head was very smooth. Underneath it had a skull shape and a ribbed design and originally it was designed to see that through that kind of transparent surface in the Giger design. I thought that what was underneath the surface was more interesting than the final look

James Cameron: A careful analysis of both films would show that the adult warrior (my term for the single adult seen in ALIEN) has the same physical powers and capabilities in ALIENS as it did previously. Since the Nostromo crew were unarmed, with the exception of flamethrowers (which we never see actually used against the creature), the relative threat was much greater than it would be to an armed squad of state-of-the- art Marines. One, crazed man with a knife can be the most terrifying thing you can imagine, if you happen to be unarmed and locked in a house alone with him. If you're with 10 armed police officers, it's a different story.

This goes well with Ash's statement in the 1979 novelization :"A man with a gun may hunt a tiger during the day with some expectation of success.  Turn out his light, put the man in the jungle at night, surround him with the unknown, and all his primitive fears return. Advantage to the tiger"

TO READ ABOUT THE TRIVIAL PHYSICAL ADJUSTMENTS CLICK HERE

"Although the film showcases numerous aliens, I decided to show them less than the one in ALIEN"

The aliens weren't seen in infrared because of the intense heat all over the place. The fact that they were lying stuck on hot pipes didn't help either.

Novelization: The heat from the cooling exchangers on the level above distorted the imaging ability of the troopers' infrared visors

Sometimes the warrior will capture prey for a host, and other times, simply kill it. For example, Ferro the dropship pilot is killed outright while Newt, and previously most of the colony members, were only captured and cocooned within the walls to aid in the Aliens' reproduction cycle

James Cameron: If we assume the Aliens have intelligence, at least in the central guiding authority of the Queen, then it is possible that these decisions may have a tactical basis. For example, Ferro was a greater threat, piloting the heavily armed dropship, than she was a desirable host for reproduction. Newt, and most of the colonists, were unarmed and relatively helpless, therefore easily captured for hosting.

As to the purpose of the Alien... I think that's clear. They're just trying to make a living, same as us. It's not their fault that they happen to be disgusting parasitical predators, any more than a black widow spider or a cobra can be blamed for its biological nature.

Staying outside meant cutting themselves from food, supplies and any possible help. Besides, Newt already said that the aliens go out at night. The outside wasn't any safer, it was even worse. Wounded marines wouldn't have much of a chance being out in the open on a rocky, open ground. They had bigger chances to barricade themselves and create a fortress. Even if they drive away in the small, vulnerable tractors (The APC was blown up by the falling dropship), its doubtful they would find any antennas, landing platforms, heating or food or water for 2 weeks up in the mountains. Besides, how would the rescue team find them then or know they are there. Plus, the explosion of the reactor would've kill them anyway, and if they'd drive away they wouldn't even be aware that the reactor is damaged and most likely wouldn't reach the safe distance. Thanks to the training they knew not to stupidly leave themselves in the open. And outside of having absolutely no cover or safe ground, there's still an issue of rescue and communication. Remember the communication was working perfectly. If the rescue ship would arrive after 2 weeks they would contact the colony. Driving far away enough to be safe from aliens walking around outside would make it impossible for the rescuers to find or locate them. That is if they could drive away to the aliens free ground unnoticed.

When they keep coming, at some point their constantly incoming in large numbers will overtake the enemy. It's the kamikaze route. That was the only way to at least try to get through this way. Retreat and do nothing was not an option. It was necessary to take the objective otherwise the marines could do even more serious damage to the hive. In history, especially during the fall of Rome, this proved to be the best tactic to just charge at the armed opponent en masse without any regards for your own life. Also, it's visible in the video monitors the aliens are moving from cover to cover trying to exhaust the ammo supply and not get hit. A fraction of aliens had to have been sacrificed to try two get through and/or exhaust the ammo. In the entire movie there are about 30 alien deaths on screen which leaves around 120 more aliens. Once aliens realized the sentry guns keep shooting and shooting they retreated to find a different solution, which they eventually did. They retreated, cut the power, and eventually weaseled their way past the Marines other defenses.

Novelization: They didn't just keep coming mindlessly.

As for the acid blood sprayed all over the place:

"Those RSS shells have a lot of impact. If it keeps blowing them backward, that'll keep the acid away. It'll spray all over the walls and floor, but the gun should stay clear"

Furthermore: Several bodies collapsed and disappeared as the acid leaking from their limbs chewed a monstrous hole in the floor.

Ripley had formed a parental bond with Newt by that point in the movie. The love she felt for her surrogate child would override any logical decision making by then. The whole message in the movie according to James Cameron was about the situations pushing you to find an inner strength. In this case, the love and paternal instincts overrode Ripley's logical assumptions and thoughts and like for any parent, nothing else mattered except for saving the child. At that point in the movie, all the characters found their inner strength and instincts they normally wouldn't have. Also, the marines were captured inside the hive itself, so they would have been cocooned and implanted almost immediately. Newt was captured in the main facility, meaning that it would have taken time for the aliens to carry her back to the hive and implant her.  MA minute before Ripley and Hicks get into the elevator they see the motion tracker filled with dots advancing their way. That means the whole army of aliens is still advancing on them looking for them. They get into the elevator and from there straight to the dropship and then to the hive. The aliens that went back to the hive were the ones that had hosts (Burke, Newt, Hudson), the rest was obviously still on the other side of the colony looking for Ripley and Hicks. Plus mounting a rescue earlier would be impossible because they could not shoot at the aliens without risking blowing everything up as oppose to later on when  the reactor was already going to blow so there was nothing to stop them from firing inside. Not to mention the number of hostile aliens had been seriously reduced by the time Newt was captured.

James Cameron: it's the heat. She even takes off some of her clothes. you can die from heat too! It was supposed to have been very hot, because the reactor is going to explode. I'm not sure that it was visually explicit that it was very, very hot, but it was supposed to be really red hot in there.

They only had two motion sensors on the planet. At the beginning of the final battle, Hudson has one, which was presumably lost with him, and Ripley has the other. She carries this for some time, but seems to drop it in the lift (she has it when they enter, she's lost it by the time they leave) either to help the injured Hicks, or possibly it's been damaged by acid from the alien who attacked them there. If there were no spares on the second dropship, and there's no indication that there were, then she simply doesn't have a motion sensor available to take with her.

No. According to Cameron: It's not in Newt, either. I would never be that cruel.

Ripley was able to break the cocoons because they were still fresh and weak. Novelization: The resinous material of the girl's cocoon hadn't hardened completely yet, and Ripley was able to loosen it enough for Newt to crawl free.

The dropship took quite some time to take off from the platform. When it got stuck in the debris, the Queen took the opportunity and entered the ramp.

James Cameron: The Queen holds on to the landing gear, and stows away inside the ship for the final sequence

Novelization: The queen had concealed herself among the landing mechanism inside one strut bay. The atmospheric plates that normally sealed the bay flush with the rest of the dropship's skin had been bent aside or ripped away. She 'd blended in perfectly with the rest of the heavy machinery until she began to emerge.

Ripley's shootout wasn't meant to kill the Queen (not right away). It was a revenge. Aliens killed her crew, friends and ruined her life. That is why she blasted the eggs first so their mother can look at her own breed dying and then hitting her in what is the mother's most precious and protected area, the wound. In this case the egg sack. In the process of that she got attacked by few aliens and spent the rest of the ammo on them. When she turned to the Queen again the only thing she had left was the grenades. She threw in an entire belt of grenades to kill the Queen (because she lost all of her ammo) and left.  Throwing a bunch of grenades at burning, wounded and stuck Queen sure seemed like something that would do the job.

An additional scene shows Ripley searching for Newt and finding Burke who has been cocooned and impregnated. Burke begs Ripley to shoot him, instead she hands him a grenade. This scene does not appear in any released version but was filmed (some magazines printed a few shots taken from it). The explosion from that grenade however, made the final cut.

From The script:

SUDDENLY SOMETHING SHOOTS OUT, GRABBING HER! A hand.
She recovers , then recognizes the face sealed in
the wall. Carter Burke.

BURKE
Ripley...help me. I can feel
it...inside. Oh, God...it's
moving! Oh gooood...

She looks at him. No one deserves this.

RIPLEY
Here.

She hands him a grenade, wrapping his fingers around
the spoon, and pulls the primer. She moves on.

1992's Newt's Tale comic book:

It's possible that there's lower gravity in the airlock. Ripley was at less than a G and the bulk of the Queen was at nearly zero G. The novelization explains that few more seconds later she would share Bishop's fate.

On the issue of decompression - James Cameron:  because for the length of time that the air was going out, she could breathe

Sulaco remained on the same height/distance the entire time. It was positioned in LV - 426's Orbit close enough to the planetoid  to be affected by its gravity so the dropship could be able to drop and be pulled by the gravity. So just like the dropship, the Queen was pulled in by LV-426. Sulaco's ventral lock was pointed at LV-426. and she was expelled towards it at some speed. Either re-entry or the fall killed her.

Novelization also follows that scenario: The queen tumbled slowly back toward the inhospitable world she'd recently fled. Ripley stared as her nemesis faded to a dot, and was then swallowed by the rolling clouds.

Bishop is the executive officer of the Colonial Marine vessel Sulaco, which is ordered to investigate the loss of contact with a terraforming colony on LV-426. He's an android model 341-B.

Bishop is capable of feeling both pain and emotions. He developed a personality and truly cares for his companions, but it's not clear whether it's really the result of his kind personality or the programming which doesn't allow him to harm a human being or contribute to the actions that could be harmful for a living person. He was created by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

The official Aliens Bio Cards state that Bishop was assembled on LX-469 and is the latest Hyperdine model designed to study Aliens. He's a reserve pilot and Med Lab Scientist.

Bishop is very much like human being. He bleeds and has the same psychological urges and feeling as people. He feels hurt when referred to as 'Synthetic', preferring the term 'Artificial Person'. The older Hyperdine model shown in the first movie was capable of eating as well, so it's very likely that Bishop could do so as well. He also requires freezing for the hypersleep and a time to rest.

Bishop is very dedicated to his work and tasks that he's responsible for. He always tries to do his best and satisfy his companions/task givers

According to the novelization, Bishop isn't just another model from the assembly line:

-Bishop was an individual. You could tell him from another synthetic just by talking to him.

-(...) peculiar thing called individuality. They programmed him with it.

-Bishop was something else.

James Cameron: That's a sound of a facehugger. (...) That was just a little kicker at the end.

Ripley uses

M41A Pulse Rifle                                                                         M240 Flamethrower

Hicks uses

M41A Pulse Rifle                                                                          Ithaca 37 "Stakeout"

Vasquez uses

M41A Pulse Rifle                                                                                                          M56 Smart Gun

 Heckler Koch VP 70

ALIENS

1986 20th Century Fox

Director: James Cameron

Writer: James Cameron
Actors: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton

Producers: Gordon Carroll (Executive), David Giler (Executive), Walter Hill (Executive), Gale Ann Hurd
Composer: James Horner

Release Date: July 18, 1986
Running Time: 2 hrs. 17 min.

MPAA Rating: R       Production Budget: $18,500,000

BOX OFFICE

Opening Weekend: $10,052,042

Domestic Gross: $85,160,248
Foreign: $45,900,000

Worldwide: $131,060,248

AWARDS

 

Academy Awards:

Won:

Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing
Best Effects, Visual Effects

Nominated:

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Sigourney Weaver
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Best Music, Original Score
Best Sound

Golden Globes

Nominated:

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama: Sigourney Weaver

Hugo Awards

Won:

Best Dramatic Presentation

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films

Won:

Best Actress: Sigourney Weaver
Best Director
Best Performance by a Younger Actor
Best Science Fiction Film
Best Special Effects
Best Supporting Actor: Bill Paxton
Best Supporting Actress: Jenette Goldstein
Best Writing
 

Nominated:

Best Actor: Michael Biehn
Best Costumes
Best Make-Up
 

Best DVD Collection (Quadrilogy 2004)

Awards of the Japanese Academy

Nominated:

Best Foreign Language Film

BAFTA Awards

Won:

Best Special Visual Effects

Nominated:

Best Make Up Artist
Best Production Design
Best Sound

Young Artist Awards

Nominated:

Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress, Supporting Role in a Feature Film

Motion Picture Sound Editors

Won:

Best Sound Editing

Casting Society of America

Nominated:

Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama

Kinema Junpo Awards

Won:

Best Foreign Language Film

Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards

Won:

Best DVD

Satellite Awards

Nominated:

Best DVD Extras
Best Overall DVD

DVD Exclusive Awards:

Won:

Best Overall DVD, Classic Movie (Including All Extra Features)

Nominated:

Best Audio Commentary (New for DVD)
Best Menu Design
Best Behind-the-Scenes Program (New for DVD)

 

Quotes taken from 'The Bloody Best Of Fangoria' Magazine

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