Motherhood
A central theme of Aliens is motherhood.[32][177] Alien can be seen as a metaphor for childbirth, but Aliens focuses on Ripley's maternal feelings for Newt. A scene cut from the theatrical release depicts Ripley learning her child died while she was in stasis, helping explain Ripley's motherly attention for Newt. Newt has also lost everything of value, and they form a new family from the remnants of their old ones.[129][177] This relationship is mirrored by the alien queen, mother of the alien creatures.[177][178] There are no paternal figures; both are single mothers, defending their young. The alien queen seeks revenge against Ripley, who destroyed her brood and her means of reproduction.[119][177] According to Richard Schickel, Alien is about survival; Aliens is about fighting to ensure someone else's survival.[129]
Authors Tammy Ostrander and Susan Yunis believed Newt's capture by the aliens forces Ripley to realize she is willing to die to save her, demonstrating a selfless motherhood, unlike the queen's selfish motherhood.[179] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Nancy Weber wrote that as a mother, she saw in Aliens the constant vigilance required to protect her child from predators, sexism, and threats to childhood innocence.[180] Leilani Nishime believed despite the focus on motherhood, the nuclear family is represented in Aliens with a mother (Ripley), father (Hicks), daughter (Newt), and a loyal, self-sacrificing dog (Bishop).[181]
According to Charles Berg, the depictions of aliens in science fiction that became more popular during the 1980s represented American fears of immigrants (the "other"). In Aliens, this can be seen in the white-skinned single mother (Ripley) confronting the dark-skinned alien queen with an endless brood.[182] Ostrander and Yunis also identified fears of overcrowding, dwindling resources, and pollution, suggesting the alien queen demonizes motherhood and makes it less attractive. She represents mindless, unchecked maternal instinct spawning armies of children, regardless of the lives which must be sacrificed to ensure their survival. Despite imminent destruction by the colony exploding, the queen continues to reproduce.[183] The aliens' life cycle taints the reproductive cycle. Creation involves rape, and birth involves a violent death.[184] In destroying the aliens and their queen, Ripley rejects the unchecked proliferation of their species and sets an example for her own.[185]
Masculinity and femininity
Ripley was often compared to the era's masculine heroes, including Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo.Ripley has been compared to John Rambo and dubbed Ramboette, Rambette, Fembo, Ramboline; Weaver called herself Rambolina.[33][186][187] Mary Lee Settle said females in television and film had evolved from escapist fantasy to more accurately reflect their audiences. A gun, which can be seen as a phallic symbol, has a different meaning when wielded by Weaver.[186] Schickel described Ripley as transcending the customary boundaries imposed on her gender, where females serve the male hero. In Aliens, the male characters are neutralized by the climax and Ripley faces the queen alone.[26] Cameron said he does not like cowardly female characters and removes their expected protectors to force them to fend for themselves. He called the overuse of male heroes "commercially shortsighted" in an industry whose audience is 50-percent female, and where "80 percent of the time, it's women who decide which film to see".[26][28]
The growth of female-led action films after the success of Aliens reflects the change in women's roles and the divide between professional critics (who perceive a masculinization of the heroine) and audiences that—regardless of gender—embrace, emulate, and quote Ripley.[188] The hyper-masculine heroes played by Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme were replaced by independent women capable of defending themselves and defeating villains in films such as The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).[189] These female characters often perform stereotypical male actions, and have muscular physiques rather than feminine "soft" bodies.[190] When Ripley has seized command of the marines and is no longer a passive outsider in Aliens, the traditional male hero (Hicks) instructs her in the use of their weapons.[191] The comparison of Ripley to Rambo conflates her with the male, musclebound, gun-wielding action hero.[192] To balance her masculine traits, Cameron gives Ripley maternal instincts; this counters homophobic audiences, who might see a masculinized female as lesbian or butch.[193] These traits are further offset by the more openly masculine Vasquez, a minor character. Vasquez (who has short hair and bigger muscles) is introduced to the audience by working out, and is asked if she has ever been mistaken for a man.[194] Weber appreciated the change in female characters between the films, contrasting Alien's hysterical Lambert with the tough Vasquez (who sacrifices herself for her team, not only for the protagonist).[180]
War and trauma
Aliens has been described as an allegory for the Vietnam War; the marines (like the United States) have superior weaponry and technology that proves largely ineffective against an unseen, local enemy.[28][85] Like some Vietnam veterans, Ripley developed post-traumatic stress disorder after the events of Alien.[195] Writer Joe Abbott contrasted the depiction of the military in Aliens to the 1954 science-fiction film Them! In both films, humans are beset by a monstrous invasion; in Them!, the military is the hero despite its responsibility for the infestation. Abbott said its post-World War II American setting depicts a competent military and a state authority that demands (and receives) the compliance of its citizens. The image of the post-Vietnam military is tarnished and scrutinized; in Aliens, it is ill-equipped, bumbling, and incapable of combating the threat posed by the alien creatures. Citizen cooperation can no longer be demanded or expected, and it is Ripley, an independent contractor from outside the state and military infrastructures, who saves the day.[196] Unlike Them!, the military is not at fault for creating the problem in Aliens; it is the Weyland-Yutani corporation ("the company") . The power of the state has been superseded by the corporation, which also demands conformity for rewards and advancement and reflects a growing mistrust of corporatism; the company is represented by Burke, a self-interested opportunist.[197] Ripley is elevated throughout Aliens as she prioritizes the survival and safety of all humans while Burke often is often willing to callously sacrifice human life in pursuit of the interests of the company.[198]
According to Weaver, Aliens is about confronting trauma to obtain closure.[199] This may be seen as a reflection of Ronald Reagan's United States presidency and a conservatism that believed the hero must return to confront their fears with ethics and morality on their side.[200][201] Comparing Alien with Aliens, Roger Luckhurst said: "Even if Alien was a piece of leftist science fiction, the core of [its] myth could be inflected the other way. [Cameron's] Aliens would be a defiantly Reaganite version of the story—pumped, militarized, libertarian driven by a staunch defense of the nuclear family."[202] Abbott said Aliens adheres to a radical ideology and condemns centrism; similar films were popular because they represented audience dissatisfaction with the social status quo.[196] The film places power in the individual (Ripley), instead of institutions like the military, corporations, or the government.[203] The Bishop character also allows Ripley to confront her distrust of androids that resulted from the deception of Ash (portrayed by Ian Holm) in Alien. Unlike Ash, Bishop is openly an android and conveys both a similarly unassuming personality and a fascination with the alien creatures. Aliens imbues Bishop with a degree of humanity as he volunteers for a potentially suicidal mission. Although the other characters assume he is artificial and thus unafraid, Bishop affirms, "Believe me, I'd prefer not to, I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid."[204]
