Aliens: An Analysis

[Local Trouble]

But SiL, they knew the location of the alien ship!

[SiL]

And if Van Leuwen had been bothered to have it checked rather than dismissing Ripley as crazy, 157 colonists, 11 marines and an indeterminant number of prisoners could've been spared.

[Engineer]

And if Van Leuwen had been bothered to have it checked rather than dismissing Ripley as crazy, 157 colonists, 11 marines and an indeterminant number of prisoners could've been spared.

You know who else would have been spared?

All of us... from this conversation lol

[Necronomicon II]

The substantial dollar value though. 😂

[Jonjamess]

You're missing the point about Burke acting alone! Completely missing the point! Quoting that he instructs Bishop to gather the facehuggers for return to the company labs (he even says Company labs!) doesn't mean he wasn't going to share his discovery with WY. Of course he was! He had to, he couldn't contain the Aliens himself and WY has rights over the Colony.

When I say hr was acting alone I mean in the first instance. By sending the Jordans to investigate (on his own not with WY permission) and by then joining the Marines to see why they've lost contact, that is how he's acting alone. WY don't believe Ripley, they thinks she's nuts!

Burke believes her so decides to go a little bit out of his jurisdiction and see if she really is telling the truth even though WY as a whole has dismissed her. Of course once he got his hands on what Ripley was describing he then assumed he would return to WY a hero with a huge bonus for having used his initiative and secured them a valuable bioweapon.

Apologies if I'm starting to sound a bit blunt but why is that so hard to understand? He's taken it upon himself without WY authorisation to send those colonists to the co-ordinates obviously stored on the flight recorder to see if there is something valuable there. Then he takes all the credit. Of course he wasn't going to set up his own labs or study the creature on his own! He was going to be the one to deliver it to them except WY weren't aware of his intentions as they had already dismissed Ripley!

Cameron has even stated Burke is acting alone although admittedly I'm having trouble finding the source and hope I'm remembering correctly. He states something about the board members in the hearing and how they aren't lying to Ripley and deceiving her, he says they genuinely don't believe her.

Thus Burke was acting alone. On a very basic level imagine in an everyday job you weren't asked to do something by your manager but you decide to take the risk and do it anyway, without telling them because you think it might show great iniative and you will be rewarded! Youre still acting alone, you havent shared your intentions with your management at that point. It's that!

The movies show us that greed drives unethical behaviour that is willing to endanger the lives of people for potential profit.

They don't show us top down Company wide conspiracies where the official policy seems to be "f**k it, just kill people why not. Let's set up a colony just to murder."

Thank you, absolutely this! Spot on.

To clarify, by "working alone" I mean without knowledge of the company and the government. Given that, he was very likely working for both, and that they designated him to do so.

He would have had to share his findings with the company and government because they own the whole rock, e.g., "mineral rights". Also, in order to exploit findings one will need teams of scientists, engineers, etc., as well as labs, factories, and so forth.

Given that, plus the fact that the company and government also knew the location of the alien ship, shows that it's illogical to act alone on such matters.

Also, there was no risk involved: all he had to do was ask the colony to investigate the site. The problem is that the manager sent in a wildcatter, who ended up entering the alien ship and got infected just like what happened in the first movie.

If you think about it, there was no rush in this matter, unless those who knew about the location of the alien ship thought that if word spread then things would get messed up, e.g., leading to everyone in the colony knowing and then rushing to the site to see who gets to find the ship and get a percentage first. But since the company and government already owned everything on the rock, then all that they needed to do was designate a point man who gets a percentage, and that's Burke, especially given the point that he's part of the board of inquiry.

In which case, Burke would not have needed to contact the colony. Instead, he would have come in with a company ship and probably a team of armed escorts and techs to check out the alien ship.

Sigh.

[Engineer]

Sigh.

I feel this in my diaphragm

[Eal]

The information presented in the movies have always been a bit confusing to me. According to the movies, the company knew of the organisms existence and wanted to secure it, but by part two they've (the Company execs we see) all forgot about it?

[Local Trouble]

I have little doubt that whoever originally issued Special Order 937 to Mother and replaced the Nostromo's science officer with Ash probably buried all evidence of the whole thing after the Nostromo went missing.  It's not exactly the kind of fiasco that your average corporate executive wants to take credit for.

Fast forward 57 years later.  Burke gets assigned this Ripley case and she tells him this wild story about a hostile organism on LV-426.  His head is filled with visions of dollar signs and swimming in a vault full of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck, so he sends an order to the colony administrators instructing them to have the location of this "derelict ship" investigated.

[kwisatz]

Fossilized.

[SiL]

It's another way Alien and Aliens share the same plot beats. The truckers are sent to investigate "something", unsure of exactly what it is. The colonists are sent to investigate "something", unsure if it actually exists.

Tragedy ensues.

[Eal]

It's another way Alien and Aliens share the same plot beats. The truckers are sent to investigate "something", unsure of exactly what it is. The colonists are sent to investigate "something", unsure if it actually exists.

Tragedy ensues.

I remember Redlettermedia mentioning this specific story element in both movies in their Alien commentary. Not that their knowledge is as extensive, being more Trekkies than anything, but pretty amusing nonetheless.

[Engineer]

Alien and aliens share a LOT of similar story beats like this...
Personally, I think Cameron did a fantastic job of dressing those similarities up enough that they don't *feel* like a rehash of the previous film; they still feel new.

[oduodu]

sorry 57 years

[Necronomicon II]

Christ... 😂 They don't believe there is an alien ship out there, "for reasons unknown", they simply do not believe Ripley at all. They think she's batshit, hence the psychiatric probation. Yeah we're going to check out coordinates and spend resources on someone we've given psychiatric probation, that follows... WY and the ICC are separate entities, Burke only works for the WY. 

Oh but that's all cover you see *X-Files music plays*

James Cameron: Burke acted alone.

Er naw!

James Cameron: Wut

[Engineer]

Christ... 😂 They don't believe there is an alien ship out there, "for reasons unknown", they simply do not believe Ripley at all. They think she's batshit, hence the psychiatric probation. Yeah we're going to check out coordinates and spend resources on someone we've given psychiatric probation, that follows... WY and the ICC are separate entities, Burke only works for the WY. 

Oh but that's all cover you see *X-Files music plays*

James Cameron: Burke acted alone.

Er naw!

James Cameron: Wut

#IWantToBelieve