12 Brilliant Movies That Completely Lied What They Were About

1. Aliens

The Lie: On the surface, Aliens is simply a stylish action sequel which sees Sigourney Weaver graduating to kick-a** momma bear status, taking on a horde of Xenomorphs with the help of a fleet of colonial marine dudebros. It's the bigger, more action-packed sibling of Ridley Scott's suspenseful original.

The Reality: Though Aliens is indeed all of those things, its central theme is actually not a single one of these concepts. Rather, it's an extremely transparent allegory of the Vietnam War, what with a technologically advanced fleet (the marines = the U.S.) heading to an exotic locale where they face unexpected resistance from an enemy with unconventional warfare tactics like they've never seen before (Xenomorphs = Viet Cong). They're grossly unprepared, and therefore the marines are easily defeated by the Xenomorphs, just as the U.S. lost and withdrew from Vietnam.

In addition, the overwhelming cockiness of the soldiers, especially Colonel Hudson (Bill Paxton), was intentionally exaggerated in order to reflect American confidence heading into Vietnam. Trust James Cameron to get blatant political allegory into a financially successful, critically-acclaimed action blockbuster (and he did it again in Avatar). Which movie made you feel the most lied to? Got any of your own examples? Shout them out in the comments!