Dietrich

Corporal Cynthia Dietrich was a United States Colonial Marine and was dispatched as part of a squad to investigate the sudden loss of communication of the Hadley’s Hope colony. She was abducted by a Xenomorph when the squad was ambushed in the Alien Hive. Dietrich appears in the 1986 film Aliens and is played by Cynthia Scott.

Biography

Mission to Hadley’s Hope

In 2179, after contact is lost with the Hadley’s Hope colony, a team of Colonial Marines is dispatched to investigate LV-426 along with Carter Burke and Ellen Ripley. When the Sulaco reached LV-426, Dietrich, along with the rest of the exited hypersleep. After breakfast, she listened to Ripley outlining the mission.

The squad boarded the APC and dropped down into Hadley’s Hope. Apone led his squad into the complex. They found that there had been a big firefight but there were no signs of life except for a young girl called Newt. As the squad’s Medic, Dietrich checked over the girl’s physical condition but didn’t find anything wrong with her other than minor malnutrition.

The squad realised that all the colonists had been taken to the Atmosphere Processing Plant and the squad set off to investigate. Burke, Gorman and Ripley stayed inside the APC and kept in contact with the Marines over the radio.

The squad soon entered the Alien Hive. Ripley realised that shooting with their weapons would damage the plant so Gorman ordered Apone to confiscate his squad’s ammunition and told them to switch to flamethrowers. The group found the colonists cocooned on the walls. One of them was still alive and the squad watched on as a Chestburster emerged from her. Apone and Dietrich used an Incinerator to set fire to Chestburster.

The hive’s Xenomorphs awoke hearing the commotion and the squad were surrounded. The Marines detected numerous Aliens moving around on their motion trackers. They switched to infrared scanning. Dietrich wondered whether they show up on infrared at all. She missed the Xenomorph hiding on the wall nearby. Dietrich was the first member of the squad to be abducted and was dragged high up by the Xenomorph. In her panic, Dietrich discharged her flamethrower which set fire to Frost and the the bag of ammunition he was carrying. The subsequent explosion killed Crowe and injured Wierzbowski.

Back in the Operations Center, the survivors realised that Dietrich hadn’t been killed outright but taken to be cocooned to be used as a host. She had either been killed by a Chestburster or when the Atmosphere Processing Plant exploded.

Personality and Traits

Being the squad’s Medic, she had a desire to immediately help those who were injured.

Weapons & Equipment

Dietrich had the standard issue M3 Pattern Personal Armor with an M10 Pattern Ballistic Helmet and a Shoulder Lamp attachment. She had customized her breastplate armour with a red no symbol. On the front of the helmet, she had a nurse’s caduceus. On the back of the helmet, she had written the words “BLUE ANGEL” and added the text “KISS MY” with some red lips on the back of her trousers. In the mission to Hadley’s Hope, she carried the M240 Incinerator with a Heckler & Koch VP70 as a backup. As the medic, she also carried a first aid kit and medical supplies.

Behind-The-Scenes

Actress Cynthia Scott originally read for the role of Vasquez before being offered the role of Corporal Ferro. She was ultimately recast as Corporal Dietrich. Ironically, even though she is the first Marine to be abducted/killed in Aliens, in James Cameron’s original treatment for the film, she survived for most of the story. She was killed when the remaining survivors were going back to the APC (which hadn’t been destroyed by the dropship) and she was pulled inside by a Xenomorph before the APC exploded.

The Blue Angel text on the back of Dietrich’s helmet was chosen by Cynthia Scott as a callback to an old black-and-white film called Blue Angel by Josef von Sternberg with Marlene Dietrich. As her character’s name is Dietrich, she added it in there to see if any fans would notice.

James Cameron asked Scott and fellow Marine actor Mark Rolston if they would come down to Pinewood Studios five days a week so she could train with a trainer. The trainer was John Lees who was the stuntman inside the Power Loader. Scott didn’t have a car so she took the underground to Mark Rolston’s place and from there, they drove to the studio. She also took bodybuilder supplements to increase her muscle.

To create the effect of Dietrich being dragged up the wall by a Xenomorph, Scott was standing on a seesaw on the ground. There were members of the crew pulling on the higher end to force it down so Scott would rise up in the air. She fell off the seesaw the first three or four times. A stuntwoman then performed the wirework to simulate her being dragged up to the ceiling.

You can read more about Scott’s experience on Aliens by reading our Cynthia Scott Interview.

Other Media

Aliens Novelization (1986 Novel)

In Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of Aliens, Dietrich appears like in the film.

Aliens: Newt’s Tale (1992 Comic)

Aliens: Newt’s Tale is a 1992 comic book adaptation of Aliens and Dietrich appears in there.

Aliens: Field Report (2014 Comic)

Aliens: Field Report is a 2014 comic book short story that retells the moment that the Marines are the hive.

Aliens: Bug Hunt (2017 Novel)

Deitrich appears in two short stories in the 2017 anthology novel Aliens: Bug Hunt. The first story is called Blowback which is a mission before Aliens where Corporal Dietrich and her squad are dispatched to a toxic world to kill indigenous lifeforms. The second story is called Exterminators where Corporal Dietrich and Private Frost are surrounded by insectoid aliens while on a backwater planet.

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