Aliens (1986)
In many respects, the film Aliens, as a whole, represents something of a comeuppance for all those bigoted individuals that continue to believe female characters are somehow lesser in terms of film – featuring, as it does, a performance from Sigourney Weaver that earned her a Best Actress Academy Award nomination (something unheard of in the science fiction genre at the time, let alone the realm of sequels). Her towering turn, and the recognition it received within the industry, was most certainly one in the eye for the more misogynist viewer.
But the film features a spectacular fictional comeuppance, too, in which a final, dramatic chase sequence through the bowels of a decimated mining colony brings a traumatized Ellen Ripley face-to-face with a Queen alien, during which moment she burns its gestating offspring.
The enraged Queen rampages through the structure, eventually bursting onto the platform of the dropship on which Ripley and a young girl in her charge – Newt – plan to make their escape. Ripley levels the playing field by donning an exo-suit, making her almost as large as the Queen, and difficult to injure. Announcing her presence with the now iconic phrase, “Get away from her, you bitch!” Ripley takes on the alien Queen and eventually evicts her, forcefully and fatally, with the aid of an airlock.
Comeuppance complete – satisfaction guaranteed.
Published: Jul 24, 2015 08:22 am