6. Aliens
FoxAll too often sequels turn out to be more of the same only less interesting - following on from Ridley Scott's dark and atmospheric horror Alien, however, James Cameron avoided tumbling into the sequelitis trap in remarkable style, delivering one of the most intense action movies to come out of the 1980s. While strictly speaking the children of the 80s were too young to be watching something like Aliens, few of us hadn't seen it by the time it came out on video - whether we begged our parents to rent it for us (discreetly covering up the rating with our finger as we passed them the box in the rental store) or borrowed it off an older sibling, it was the Holy Grail of action sci-fi which got played over and over again. The subtexts about feminism and the Vietnam War might have been completely lost on us but the tension and explosive action certainly weren't - and more than a few of us got into trouble on the playground shouting out "Get away from her you bitch!" For some reason the teachers found it offensive...