We all love the 1986 movie Aliens right? Did you know that there are three movies that director James Cameron borrowed from for the look and feel of the movie, plus a ton of lore from a book. Let’s go.
The first is the 1954 movie Them! The stroyline of that classic horror was that the first atomic tests in New Mexico resulted in common ants mutating into enormous, man-eating creatures that pose a grave threat to civilization.
Here’s a side-by-side video of the two movies. Plenty the same right?
And here’s a more in-depth run though.
Next up is Xenogenesis. A 1978 short made by James Cameron. A woman and a genetically engineered man are sent on a mission aboard a colossal sentient starship to explore space for a new home. Raj decides to explore the ship and encounters a massive robotic cleaner. A fierce battle ensues. But wait… what’s that… an exo-suit?
Last round is the book (not the later movie) Starship Troopers, published in 1959 at the height of the Cold War. Go read the book and there’s the obvious stuff… soldiers fighting vicious aliens. But whole concepts around phrases like ‘bug hunt’, the ‘dropship’, and the armor the Colonial Marines wear. James Cameron even had his cast playing the marines go read the book to get a feeling for their characters’ backgrounds and dynamics.
The Starship Troopers movie hit in 1997… some 11 years after Aliens. We can never resist running a trailer.
