Frost

Private First Class Ricco Frost 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. He was accidentally killed in the Alien Hive after Dietrich set him alight with her flamethrower. Frost appears in the 1986 film Aliens and is played by Ricco Ross.

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, Frost exited hypersleep and went to the cafeteria to have breakfast. He remembered one mission where the group had contact with a group of Arcturians but the one he had turned out to be male. In the cargo bay, he and Dietrich practised their melee skills. He then listened to Ripley and Gorman outlining the mission.

The squad boarded the APC and dropped down into Hadley’s Hope. They entered the complex. They found that there had been a big firefight but there were no signs of life. Forst detected something on the motion tracker and discovered it was a young girl called Newt. The squad realised that all the colonists had been taken to the Atmosphere Processing Plant and the squad set off to investigate. Frost drove the squad to the location in the APC. Burke, Gorman and Ripley stayed inside 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. Frost was given the bag of confiscated ammunition to carry. 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 used Frost’s flamethrower and he and Dietrich set fire to Chestburster. Frost then switched to his backup pistol.

The hive’s Xenomorphs awoke hearing the commotion and the squad were surrounded. Dietrich was the first to be abducted. When Frost went over to help her, she inadvertently unleashed her flamethrower which engulfed Frost in flames. He fell over the railings and plunged several floors to his death. He had dropped the ammunition bag he was carrying which caught on fire. The subsequent explosion killed Private Crowe and injured Private Wierzbowski.

Personality and Traits

Frost was a bit of a joker in the team, making light of any situation. Frost was always quick to question orders that he didn’t either understand or agree with. In the cargo bay, he questioned what the term Xenomorph meant went Gorman outlined the mission. Later in the hive, he didn’t agree with their ammunition being confiscated, saying “What are we supposed to use? Harsh language?”.

Weapons & Equipment

Frost had the standard issue M3 Pattern Personal Armor with an M10 Pattern Ballistic Helmet and a Shoulder Lamp attachment. He had customized his front chest plate with a white heart with the name Heath being pierced by an arrow. On his armour’s left shoulder, he had the text “When in doubt, “NUKE EM”” in red. Frost carried an M240 Incinerator Unit while in the Hive but Apone later took it from him. As a backup weapon, he carried a Heckler & Koch VP70 sidearm.

Behind-The-Scenes

Actor Ricco Ross originally auditioned for the part of Corporal Hicks. He was offered the role of Private Drake but turned it down so he could appear in Full Metal Jacket. As a result, James Cameron, who was impressed with Ross’s audition, wrote the character of Frost specifically for Ross. Ross left Full Met Jacket and did Aliens instead.

Other Media

Aliens Novelization (1986 Novel)

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

Aliens: Bug Hunt (2017 Novel)

Frost appears in two short stories in the 2017 anthology novel Aliens: Bug Hunt. The first story, Blowback, is a mission before Aliens where Corporal Dietrich and his squad including Apone are dispatched to a toxic world to kill indigenous lifeforms. In the second story, Exterminators, this sees Corporal Dietrich and Private Frost on a backwater planet when they are surrounded insectoid aliens.

Trivia

• In 2014, Ross was interviewed for a podcast and said that his character’s first name is Robert, explaining that the Marines used the first letter of their actor’s names rather than their first names.
• In 2015, Ricco Ross was going to star in the Alien Identity fan film along with Carrie Henn. 20th Century Fox eventually sent a cease and desist order to the producers of the fan film which resulted in its cancellation.
• Frost’s flamethrower weapon appears in the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines as a Legendary Weapon.

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