Aliens (1979).  Director: James Cameron.  Starring: Sigorney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton.

Very early on, when videos were first released in the first of the true, “prestigious” formats (in that case laserdisc), among the more interesting movies released at that time were those of director James Cameron.  Off all the directors out there, he seemed to be one of the earliest ones willing to take full advantage of what laserdiscs offered.

Aliens, the film that followed Cameron’s initial hit The Terminator, was just one of the films to take advantage of the laserdisc, and later DVD, format.  At the time I heard of the impending laserdisc release, I knew there would be extra scenes incorporated into the movie itself.  I was very eager to see the movie’s “longer” cut, given what an incredible experience the theatrical version was.  I figured more of a good thing couldn’t possibly be bad.

As I discovered, the extended cut of Aliens featured roughly three major extra sequences.  One of them, if memory serves, had to have its special effects completed for the video release, as the scene was cut long before the movie's post-production.

That sequence, which happens early in the film, involves the colonists finding the crashed spacecraft from the original Alien film.  This is the first we see of Newt and the only time we see her parents.  The poor girl and her parents, it turns out, were the ones to make the deadly alien discovery.  Newt's parents, to boot, were the first colonial victims of the face huggers.  The effects created to complete this sequence were the outdoor shots of Newt's parent's vehicle moving through the desolate planet side and eventually reaching the alien spacecraft that transported the deadly alien eggs.

While this extra sequence is interesting, it is also very unnecessary.  In the theatrical version we are told the colony went silent and, like Ripley, we fear the worst.  By adding this sequence, we dilute the dread that the film builds up until the actual discovery of the alien creatures.  It also stretches believability that the one survivor of the alien onslaught just happened to be there at the genesis of it, as well.

The next extra scene, the one of the three that most deserves to be re-integrated into the film, has Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) discover the fate of her child.  At the end of the events in Alien, Ripley goes into hibernation on her escape craft.  Aliens reveals that she remained in hibernation for over fifty years, many years more than she should have been.  Thus, when revived, Ripley discovers her child has grown up in her absence and just recently died of old age.  This scene is emotionally devastating.  Not only has Ripley lost her crew to a horrifying monster (something that is still very fresh in her mind) and emerged a stranger in a strange new world, but she's also lost her child to time.

I love this scene.  It adds an extra dimension to Ripley’s desperate desire to make sure Newt, the last of the colonists, survives.  For Newt is not only an abstract daughter figure, she becomes in Ripleys mind the daughter she never got to know.  I suppose one could argue that the maternal instinct element is enough and, as filmed, the segment itself has a certain clunkiness to it.  I won't argue the later point.  However, I feel this scene could, and should, have made the final cut.

The last sequence is also the one that is the least essential.  After the marines have barricaded themselves in the remains of the colony, and they know the aliens are on their way from the nuclear plant to attack, they set up an automated machine gun and its use comprises the aliens’ first wave attack.  The automatic machine gun mows them down as they approach, but the gun's bullets run lower and lower and the invading alien horde doesn't seem to grow any weaker.  The marines realize that they will have to fight.  But, truly, there is no hope.  The alien force is overwhelming...

Then, just as the bullets run out, the aliens pull back.  The threat, for the moment, is averted.

I’ve heard rumors of another intriguing scene that I'm not sure was ever filmed.  In the last quarter of the film, Ripley goes out alone to save Newt in the nuclear reactor.  Once there, she stumbles upon Paul Reiser’s weasily “Burke” character.  Echoing the cut Dallas scene in the original Alien, he begs her to put him out of his misery.  He’s been impregnated by the aliens and his body is fused to the nest wall.  Ripley considers doing so, but ultimately leaves him there to suffer.

Was this scene ever filmed?  Given the fact that the DVDs didn't feature it in the bountiful bonus section, I tend to doubt it.  Perhaps this sequence was only a rumor or maybe it made it only as far as the screenplay or novelization stage.  If it was ever considered for the film, I figure it was discarded because it showed our hero in a decidedly cold-blooded manner, even though she was dealing with someone as nasty as Burke.  Still, it would have been intriguing to see!

Bottom line: one out of three extended sequences is well worth it.  The one featuring the discover of the alien craft by the colonists is the most unnecessary, the automated machine gun sequence is OK but, also unnecessary.