45. Scene: Multiple Signals, Closing
When the team are sent into the Atmosphere Processor and find its now an Alien nest we get the tense feeling that things are about to kick off. Then they are told to strip off their rifle magazines and go forward all but unarmed. This scene is tense and we get to understand how the key characters react to this kind of stress when the big weapons are taken away. The answer is: badly. Vazquez and Drake disobey orders and reload with spare ammo clips while Hicks pulls out the aforementioned shotgun. The rest are pretty much sent screaming to their doom.
44. Pacing
The film is actually surprisingly long. It takes a good while to get to the planet as we find out what has or hasnt changed in the universe since Ripleys sensationally lengthy hyper-sleep induced nap. We see a lot of what is going on for Ripley in her life and how the trauma of the first film is manifesting in her nightmares. Once the action does kick in, it is broken into several escalating set pieces which are delivered masterfully. Throughout the movie the balance of dialogue and action is intelligently maintained to keep the audience wanting more and then getting it.
43. Weve Lost Contact With The Colony On LV426
The reveal of the loss of communications is inevitable and tinged with a perfect mixture of horror and I told you so that we as an audience feel. During the opening half hour Ripley is ripped apart by the Wayland Yutani review panel and to watch Burke swallow it and deliver the bad news is a bitter/sweet moment in the film.
42. Hiding In The Vents
When Newt is first revealed we get a fantastic sequence where she is being chased down on the motion tracker and almost get shot. But after that we see that the kid is a resourceful survivor who dug in and lived against all the odds by hiding with a cache of food, blankets and trinkets from her family life. This creates a nice parallel to Ripleys survival in the first film. They should have put her in charge.
41. Motion Tracker Online
The motion tracker is fantastic. It is the build-up to everything awesome that happens in the movie. As soon as you hear that noise and see the ping on the little screen you know something good/awful is about to happen. It is equivalent to the Jaws theme, starting off slowing but as the target gets closer the noise intensifies until it is a shrill whine and then we know theyre here!