35. Private William Hudson Bill Paxton
Hudson can be summarised adequately in two quotes: Game over man, game over which tells us that he is a whining little bitch that probably shouldnt be allowed near a gun and that recruitment to the marines is not a particularly selective process. Is this gonna be a stand up fight sir, or another bug hunt? Arrogant, mouthy, bullish, gun toting idiot. The man is the comic relief of the film, and it doesnt take you long to realise that through all of his bullshit, he is way out of his depth in a proper combat situation. Though he does have a noble-ish departure, when he is being dragged through the floor and goes out fighting to the last bullet screaming Fuck you all the way down.
34. Ellen Ripley Ripley Sigourney Weaver
Ripleys character grows in Aliens, from being the lone survivor of the first film she has to tackle the nightmares that haunt her sleep and eventually decides the only way to do that, is to confront her worst fear. She finds her strength in the midst of everyone elses meltdown and is solely responsible for the marines escape from the Aliens in the opening contact. She finds a girl and nurtures and protects her against the deadly of foes (and Burke) and finally defeats the biggest Alien of them all, the Queen. Ripley is superb throughout a real heroine and bastion for feminists the world over. She outlives all the men despite having no training to do so and kicks some serious Alien ass. Do not mess with this woman, she will drop your ass into space.
33. The Rest of the Cast
The supporting cast of the film is great. Apone has set a standard for the interpretation of black Sergeants in film and video games (see Sarge Johnson in Halo specifically), Bishop is the nice, up front android counter to creepy Ash (Ian Holm) in Alien, who saves Ripleys ass and then gets torn in half for his trouble. Gorman, the inexperienced field commander who is out of his depth from the first fight onwards, right down to the minor characters like Frost and Dietrich and the best named marine ever, Spunkmeyer. Everyone is given a little moment on screen to shine and we like most of the characters the ones we are supposed to like anyway before they are sent to the ether by the Alien horde. Likewise we also dislike all the people we are supposed to as well like that fucking bint who says: Its a rock, no indigenous life at the beginning. IQs did drop sharply while Ripley was away.
32. The Pulse Rifle
The M41-A Pulse Rifle is the marines weapon of choice in Aliens. An awesome looking death beast of a gun, not satisfied with simply slaying Alien hordes with bullets, this mother has got a pump action grenade launcher to boot. We all want one of these for Christmasjust in case.
31. Scene: Escape From The Atmosphere Processor Hive
The chase sequence after first contact goes slightly awry is awesome. After finally getting the doors shut and Gorman knocked out, Ripley pedal to the metals it out of the atmosphere processor station in the APC. She smashes it off of just about every hard surface available with her inexpert driving and then has to break hard so that she can crush an Aliens face under the wheels. This sequence is awesome pulse pounding stuff. The way that it tears through the doors to the outside and supposed safety is awesome (although I must question why the Aliens didnt just follow them outunless the Aliens forgot their jackets and didnt want to brave the wind of course.)