The art of filmmaking
VISUAL LANGUAGE - Aliens
James Cameron first came into the limelight with 1984’s The Terminator, but really caught Hollywood’s attention with Aliens. As much as I like the original film by Ridley Scott, I always found Cameron’s vision to be a masterpiece, a rock star’s version of space terror.
57 years after Ripley’s encounter in the first film, Ripley is sent back to LV-426 as a consultant after the corporation loses contact with the colony of workers that are there.
I first got the idea and inspiration to break this down after I worked 1st AD for Producer Mark Johnson and Director Tim Hyten’s latest film “O2“, a science fiction thriller/drama that was filmed on the stages at Laurel Canyon Studios. We shot for two days on their spaceship stage; a very similar set design as seen in the Aliens film.
Director Tim Hyten (on right) and Gaffer Luis Sinibaldi. Image courtesy Kyle Stebbins 2008.
What really interests me is Cameron’s choices in coverage and pacing and I want to pay particular attention to a couple of areas during my breakdown:
1. Pacing - The ticking clock.
2. Coverage - The intentional misdirection used by Cameron to guide the audience visually.
3. Misdirection - Cameron’s deliberate misdirection.
First, let us read the script segment from the scene. Think how you would shoot it, how many cuts, set-ups, the staging and then scroll down for the shot by shot breakdown.
INT. OPERATIONS - ANGLE ON HUDSON 146
looking decidedly stressed-out. He grips his rifle
tightly, AIMED RIGHT AT CAMERA.
HUDSON
(intense)
I say we grease this rat-fuck
son of a bitch right now!
THE GROUP is gathered around Burke who sits in a
chair, maintaining an icy calm although beads of
sweat betray intense concealed tension. Only a few
minutes have passes and everyone is still buzzed on
adrenaline, as if the whole group is charged with
high voltage.
HICKS
(pacing)
I don't get it. It doesn't
make any Goddamn sense.
Ripley stands in front of Burke, every fiber of
her being accusing him with absolute outrage. Burke
tries to break Ripley's stare, which is like a
diamond drill. He can't.
RIPLEY
He wanted an alien, only he
couldn't get it back through
quarantine. But if we were impregnated
...whatever you call it...and then
frozen for the trip back at just
the right time...then nobody would
know about the embryos we were carrying.
We and Newt.
Ripley glances at the little girl, a frail figure
sitting nearby, hugging her knees and watching the
proceedings with somber eyes. She is all but lost in
an adult jacket someone has found for her, and her still
damp hair is plastered to her forehead and cheeks.
HICKS
Wait a minute. We'd know about it.
RIPLEY
The only way it would work is if
he sabotaged certain freezers
on the trip back. Then he could
jettison the bodies and make up
any story he liked.
HUDSON
Fuuuck! He's dead.
(to Burke)
You're dogmeat, pal.
BURKE
This is total paranoid delusion.
It's pitiful.
RIPLEY
(wearily)
You know, Burke, I don't know
which species is worse. You don't
see them screwing each other over
for a fucking percentage.
HICKS
(serious)
Let's waste him.
(to Burke)
No offense.
Ripley shakes her head, the rage giving way to a
sickened emptiness.
RIPLEY
Just find someplace to lock him
up until it's time to --
THE LIGHTS GO OUT. Everyone stops in the sudden darkness,
realizing instinctively it is a new escalation in the
struggle. Hicks looks at the board. Everything is out.
Doors. Video screens.
RIPLEY
They cut the power.
HUDSON
What do you mean, they cut the
power? How could they cut the
power, man? They're animals.
Ripley picks up her rifle and thumbs off the safety.
RIPLEY
Newt! Stay close.
(to the others)
Let's get some trackers going.
Come on, get moving. Gorman, watch
Burke.
Hudson and Vasquez pick up their scanners and move to
the door. Vasquez has to slide it open manually on its
track.
INT. CORRIDOR 147
The two troopers separate and move rapidly to the
barriers at opposite ends of the control block.
DOLLYING WITH VASQUEZ as she moves forward with feral
steps in the darkness.
ON HUDSON scanning the med lab and the nearby barrier.
RIPLEY
(voice over)
Anything?
BEEP. Hudson's tracker lights up, a faint signal.
HUDSON
There's something.
He pans it around. Back down the corridor. It beep
again, louder.
HUDSON
It's inside the complex.
VASQUEZ
(voice over)
You're just reading me.
HUDSON
No. No! It ain't you. They're
inside. Inside the perimeter.
They're in here.
RIPLEY
Hudson, stay cool. Vasquez?
ANGLE ON VASQUEZ swinging her tracker and rifle together.
She aims it behind her. BEEP.
VASQUEZ
(cool)
Hudson may be right.
INT. OPERATIONS 148
Ripley and Hicks share a look..."here we go."
HICKS
(low)
It's game time.
RIPLEY
Get back here, both of you. Fall
back to Operations.
INT. CORRIDOR 149
Hudson backtracks nervously, peering all around. He
looks stretched to the limit.
HUDSON
This signal's weird...must be
some interference or something.
There's movement all over the
place...
RIPLEY
(voice over)
Just get back here!
Hudson reaches the door to operations at a run, a
moment before Vasquez. They pull the door shut and
lock it.
INT. OPERATIONS 150
Hudson joins Ripley and Hicks, who are laying out their
armament. Flamethrowers. Grenades. M-41A magazines.
Hudson's tracker beeps. Then again. The tone continues
through the SCENE, its rhythm increasing.
HUDSON
Movement! Signal's clean.
He pans the scanner. Stops. The range display reads
out, counting down.
HUDSON
Range twenty meters.
RIPLEY
(to Vasquez)
Seal the door.
Vasquez picks up a hand-welder and moves to comply.
HUDSON
Seventeen meters.
HICKS
Let's get these things lit.
He hands one flamethrower to Ripley and begins priming
the other himself. It lights with a muffled POP.
Ripley's lights a moment later. Sparks shower around
Vasquez as she begins welding the door. Hudson's tracker
is beeping like mad now, as fast as their hearts.
RIPLEY
They learned. They cut the power
and avoided the guns. They must
have found another way in, something
we missed.
HICKS
We didn't miss anything.
HUDSON
Fifteen meters.
RIPLEY
I don't know, an acid hole in
a duct. Something under the
floors, not on the plans.
I don't know!
She picks up Vasquez' scanner and aims it the same
direction as Hudson's.
HUDSON
Twelve meters. Man, this is a big
fucking signal. Ten meters.
RIPLEY
They're right on us. Vasquez,
how you doing?
Vasquez is heedlessly showering herself with molten metal
as she welds the door shut. Working like a demon.
HUDSON
Nine meters. Eight.
RIPLEY
Can't be. That's inside the room!
HUDSON
It's readin' right. Look!
Ripley fiddles with her tracker, adjusting the tuning.
HICKS
Well you're not reading it right!
HUDSON
Six meters. Five. What the fu --
He looks at Ripley. It dawns on both of them at the same
time. She feels a cold premonitory dread as she angles
her tracker upward to the ceiling, almost overhead. The
tone gets louder.
Hicks climbs onto a file cabinet and raises a panel of
acoustic drop-ceiling. He shines his light inside.
HICKS' P.O.V. 151
A soul-wrenching nightmare image. Moving in the beam of
light are aliens. Lots of aliens. They are crawling
like bats, upside down, clinging to the pipes and beams
of the structural ceiling, not touching the flimsy
acoustic panels. They glisten hideously as they claw
their way forward in silence. They cover the ceiling
of the operations room. The inner sanctum is utterly
violated.
1. Pacing - The ticking clock.
Cameron uses a classic film technique to build tension and suspense. With the countdown of the tracking sensors, the audience braces themselves for the last tick of the bomb.
2. Coverage - The intentional misdirection used by Cameron to guide the audience visually.
We never get a real glimpse of the ceiling, always in soft focus and just out of frame as Cameron shoots with the ceiling mostly out of view of the frame. When we do see the ceiling, it is in a very soft focus.
3. Misdirection - Cameron’s deliberate misdirection.
Cameron guides us into focusing on the doorway. Outside in the hallway, the sealing of the doors, the backing away from the door by all of the characters, and the shots of the door from their point of view. When we realize they are in the ceiling, it is more shocking than a sudden surprise as we feel betrayed somehow from our safety net.
I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of Aliens and the use of visual language to control your audience. Next time you set out to shoot your film, think of ways you can control and guide your audience visually and with pacing.
Come back soon for a study on Steven Spielberg’s E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial. You can see more scene study and breakdowns in my blogs VISUAL LANGUAGE section here.
“What are you gonna do, talk the alien to death?” - James Cameron
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9 comments for “VISUAL LANGUAGE - Aliens”
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VISUAL LANGUAGE - Aliens |…
I first got the idea and inspiration to break this down after I worked 1st AD for Producer Mark Johnson and Director Tim Hyten’s latest film “O2“, a science fiction thriller/drama that was filmed on the stages at Laurel Canyon Studios. We shot fo…
Cameron’s suffered from the same critisism that Spielberg endured for most of his career. That some how commercialism and artistry are mutualy exlusive. This scene from Aliens proves that Cameron is a skilled craftsman and a gifted storyteller. I would put this scene up against anything Hitchcock directed. Another director whose talent wasn’t fully appreciated until the very end of his life. In fact I’d be very surprised if Cameron wasn’t thinking about Hitchcock when he directed Aliens. I think Hitchcock explained the ticking clock theory best in the following excerpt.
Hitchcock: There is a distinct difference between “suspense” and “surprise,” and yet many pictures continually confuse the two. I’ll explain what I mean.
We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let’s suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, “Boom!” There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o’clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: “You shouldn’t be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!”
In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.
Great, great lesson, man. I love your analysis, im learning a lot. keep them coming!
hi from spain
Joan.
Thank you for the comments! I am happy you enjoyed it !
John
As a filmmaker, you can never stop learning and these are great lessons… MORE PLEASE!
One of my fav films and most watched movies in my collection… Love your scene breakdown.
It would be amazing if you did more on aliens, particularly the climatic 20 mins….
Tanx from rainy Ireland
Padriag
Great analysis. I appreciate the work you put into the breakdown of these scenes, and look forward to more.
These breakdowns help me so much its insane, like i was previously stuck in the matrix. my eyes are even more open now. please breakdown Road Warrior!
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