I'm a big fan of James Cameron's Aliens. I'd seen and loved Terminator. I heard a sequel to Alien (which I also loved) was his next project and waited for a year for it to finally hit the big screen. I wasn't disappointed. Neither were the movie executives when they saw the box office.

Even Gene Siskel admitted the story was well-structured, though he hated it (he told Ebert, "The Eifel Tower is also well-structured, but that doesn't mean I want to watch it fall apart on people for two hours." -- that's his words as best as I can remember). Good old Gene, gone but not forgotten.

I've been meaning to do something in-depth on weaving together sub-plots for a while now. And also talk about story beats. Aliens would make as good a subject as any for analysis, as it weaves the two judiciously.

Of course, if you haven't seen the movie, all this won't make much sense to you and do you any good. Somehow I doubt there are too many people who read this blog who haven't seen Aliens, but if there are any, do yourself a favor and put it in the Netflix que or whatever.

Oh, and I'm using the extended cut, of course. That's the most popular version on DVD.

What I did to help you follow my notes is graph out the story beats for Aliens.

What's a story beat? I can't remember where I picked up the term. It might have been in a screenwriting book. It's basically a bit of story that advances one of your plots. Story beats can be positive, where good things happen, or downbeat, with matters getting worse for your characters. The music of your story is going to be when you shift from one set of story beats to another, with positive or negative outcomes.

Obviously this graph is just my opinion. Someone else might break it up differently, or decide to map out the relationship between Ripley and Hicks (which is nice, but it's only about four beats so I left it out), or say that the Rescue Mission really ends when the dropship crashes. Fine. Big hairy geek arguments are fun, but I'm trying to talk about writing.

To keep it simple I merged some scenes, every time Cameron cut from medlab to operations I didn't necessarily start a new scene.

So anyway, scenes are cross-referenced to the main plot and various sub-plots. Gale Anne Hurd, who produced this movie and was one of Cameron's many wives, breaks story down into four basic conflicts: man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. self and man vs. God. Aliens uses three of these four to good effect. Although I'm happy to listen to arguments presenting "the Company" as a placeholder for God. I can't quite make up my mind on that. Fire away.

When something happens that has a positive outcome, I do a "+" sign, when it hits the fan, I do a "-". Simple enough? I also added a column for major suspense or action scenes.

What do we learn from this, other than that I have an obsessive interest in this movie? Aliens is a great example of mixing up your ups and downs, and weaving back and forth between the main plot and sub Let's look at the plots and sub plots:

Rescue Mission (mostly plays out as man vs. man in this story)
I listed this first because it provides the setup for the movie. There's now a human colony on the small world were Ripley and her space truckers in Alien met the beastie, and shortly after Ripley's return they lose contact with said colony. A small but lethal force of Colonial Marines is sent to find out what the problem is.

Most of the relationships are defined as they prepare to save the colonists from an unknown threat. It's what pulls the characters together and drops them (literally) into the setting where the bad stuff is going to happen.

You'll notice that this plot is resolved pretty early. The colonists have all been captured and used to make more aliens. It's a plotline that is mostly positive: the Colonial Marines do things "smooth and by the numbers" until they learn that the colonists they're supposed to rescue are all dead (except for one notable exception, the little girl Newt). Once they get ambushed by the aliens in the atmosphere processor, the characters are much more in need of rescue than acting as rescuers.

Man vs. Aliens (man vs. nature, the aliens being that unknown thing lurking just beyond the light of the campfire)
Well duh, this is the main plot. It's even in the title! That the main conflict of the story: who is going to be on top at the end, humans or aliens?

This plotline has better than twice the story beats of any of the subplots. Notice how of all the plotlines, this is the one with the most changes in direction, from things going positively to negatively back to positively. It doesn't get resolved until Ripley sends the queen alien out a airlock.

Ripley vs. New World (man vs. man)
This important subplot has Ripley entering a number of new worlds. She wakes up to find she's been drifting through space for 57 years. She has problems with the authorities who don't believe her story, her new reduced status as someone who's no longer allowed to fly, and finally she's got to fit in to the tough world of the Colonial Marines when she agrees to accompany the rescue mission as an adviser.

After a few doubts, the marines learn they can rely on her. By the middle of the film, the plotline is resolved when Ripley basically takes command of the survivors. This isn't so far fetched. She's already rescued the marines from death at this point, and she's a former warrant officer on a starship, so she's used to giving orders.

Ripley vs. Her Fear (man vs. self)
This is an internal conflict. Ripley is troubled by nightmares brought on by her experiences on the Nostromo. She keeps waking up from sleep, dreaming there's an alien inside her.

Ripley has some bad moments early on in the story. She had bad dreams, she initially refuses to go on the rescue mission, she's scared to death when she finally enters the colony. She ends up able to conquer her fear when she has to save the trapped marines and protect Newt.

It's resolved by the end, when Ripley tells Newt that its safe for both of them to dream again.

Lieutenant vs. Squad (man vs. man)
I like this sub-plot because it shows that the world doesn't revolve around Ripley. Everyone else has troubles of their own. At least initially, it gives a group dynamic to the Colonial Marines as they mostly conflict with their new commander.

The new lieutenant is a bit of an ass. He doesn't eat with his marines, he's inexperienced, and he freezes up when they get in trouble. Then he drops out of the picture for a long time, knocked out by a concussion. He finally ends up proving himself by going back for the wounded Vasquez and committing suicide by hand grenade rather than be taken by the aliens. In their final seconds she acknowledges him by gripping his hand rather after the manner she gripped Drake, her fellow gunner and best friend.

Burke is a Slimeball? (man vs. man)
When Burke first meets Ripley he tells her he works for The Company, but not to let that bother her because really an OK guy. Burke not being an OK guy complicates matters. In fact, we learn that he's the whole reason there's a problem on LV-426 in the first place. He sent the colonists out to the location of the wrecked alien spacecraft without warning them ("Okay, look. What if that ship didn't even exist? Did you ever think about that, I didn't know! So, now, if I went and made a major security situation out of it, everybody steps in; Administration steps in, and there's no exclusive rights for anybody, nobody wins! So I made a decision, and it was... wrong. It was a bad call, Ripley. It was a bad call.")

Superficially, Burke is a nice guy, usually there with a helpful comment or positive reinforcement. He expresses concern for Ripley and her trouble sleeping. Once Burke goes south he goes south in a hurry. He tries to use some facehuggers in the medical lab to impregnate Ripley and Newt, then as the fight progresses in operations he flees and locks the door behind him, trapping the survivors with the aliens.

Mother/Daughter bond (man vs man with some man vs. self for each of them)
This is the emotional heart of the story. While Ripley was drifting in space, her own daughter grew up, had a nice life, and died. Ripley meets a little girl who fills the gap. The little girl has also lost her family She ends up willing to brave anything not to lose a child she loves again. Newt begins to think of Ripley as a mother.

Plus, it turns out Newt has "scary dreams," just like Ripley.

The interesting thing about this plotline as it's nothing but positive until the end. You know how I'm always harping that you have to give the readers a raft to cling to now and then? The closeness between Ripley and Newt is the raft in this story, all their scenes together are sweet and positive. Until the end, when Ripley loses Newt and has to rescue her.

This is one of the final beats of the story, when Ripley and Newt have a quiet moment at the end.

Ripley vs. Bishop (man vs God? -- doesn't this outcome depend on the intents of Bishop's creator?)
Ripley and the android on the Nostromo ended up being deadly enemies, so she reacts badly to the news that there's another android coming along on the mission. Bishop is basically a red herring. You keep waiting for him to turn on everyone, based on your experiences with the other movie, but he doesn't. Cameron even makes Bishop a little like Ash from the first film to sew a few doubts, when Bishop praises the creatures.

This subplot is resolved back on the Sulaco, when Ripley praises Bishop. Bishop is evidently programmed to look pleased.

Suspense and Action
Cameron starts a clock ticking shortly after mid-film, when we find out the atmosphere processor's reactor was damaged in the fight and is overheating to the point where it will blow up. From here on out the characters not only have to fight off the aliens, they have to get away from the inevitable reactor explosion.

Remember Hitchcock's maxim that suspense occurs when the audience knows what's going to happen, they're just not sure about exactly when and how.

Notice how the action/suspense is almost nonstop from the moment the aliens cut the power?

Also, big action scenes tend to also give big results in terms of resolving plot lines. All the furious action of the nest ambush and Ripley's rescue leads to the end of the Rescue Mission subplot and Ripley taking over. Burke and Lt. Gorman both get finished off near the big fight in Operations. Defeating the Queen means it's safe for Ripley and Newt to dream together as they go home (I like to pretend Alien 3 and 4 never happened!).

Final Observations
Note how the main story takes over the end. Also how the sub-plots and the main plot go in little groups, they're usually paired up, like with like. If you're going to spend some time on a subplot, make it a couple scenes so the audience doesn't feel like they're being yanked in and out of mini-stories.

One final note. My mom loves this movie too. She says she likes it because "the women all have interesting and important jobs." Nothing pisses mom off like an action movie where the female characters are all either mothers or strippers. Worth remembering, I think. *cough* Independence Day *cough*.

ETA: Whoops, I just realized I made it sound like being a mom isn't an interesting and important job. It is. Duh. But moms need entertainment like everyone else, and my mom liked to see starship officers running over aliens with an APC.