Word: ripleyisms
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...largest function of all these people is to provide a bustling background for Ripley's quieter, more intense development. In the first film she was a smart, self-contained careerist, essentially a reactive character, desperately fighting against something but not for anybody or anything except her own life. The sequel gives her something, someone wonderful to fight...
...well, brave and clever but never self-sentimentalizing. She is discovered as a silent little creature, scuttling through air ducts too small for the aliens to penetrate, living an almost rodent-like existence. Her plight would be enough to touch anyone's heart, but in this context, only Ripley has the time and the wit to appreciate...
...Ripley's bonding with Newt is inevitable, as Hurd says, "because they were both survivors of their own particular group's encounter with extraterrestrial species. They knew what they were up against, and the others didn't. In Alien, people had to fight or die. Now Ripley could save herself but chooses to fight to save Newt." It is, in part, the unexpectedness and depth of her feelings that give the film its propulsive power, fueling the final hour to at least two more heart-stopper endings than the average thriller...
Enough carping. In an age that rewards strength over grace, let there be women as strong as Weaver's Ripley. May homeless children have no less ferocious an adoptive mother; may extraterrestrial predators meet no less resourceful an antagonist. Trust that a million moviegoers will find the glamour beneath the smudged sweat on Ripley's face, and the feral humor in her challenge to Big Mama Alien: "Get away from her, you bitch...
...Alien and its new sequel, Weaver has been able to commandeer center screen with a character she larkishly calls "Rambolina." Beneath the armor, though, she has found exotic soulmates: "I secretly structured myself to play Ripley like Henry V and like the women warriors of classic Chinese literature." Aliens was no take-the-money-and-run proposition (though she was paid $1 million, about 30 times her salary for the 1979 original). As Cameron remarks, "She's intensely prepared. Her copy of the script was marked with 17 different colors of ink. The margin notes were incredible...