“My mommy always said there were no monsters, no real ones, but there are.”

Justin’s rating: In my head canon, Hicks and Newt survived the rest of the movies

Justin’s review: Probably the movie question that I hate getting asked the most is which title is my all-time favorite. For a lot of reasons, that’s a hard answer to give succinctly. But while I have a lot of “favorites,” my go-to answer is Aliens and I sleep well that night giving it.

It’s such an amazingly layered movie that’s more than a horror flick, more than a popcorn action experience, and more than James Cameron ramping up to a planet full of blue hippies. And in honor of my favorite movie and the release of Alien Romulus this summer, I thought I’d go back and review the special edition.

Before we get to that, however, here are my top 12 moments in this movie because I feel like making a list:

(1) Ripley taking on the Company: The inquest for the Nostromo incident takes what could be a boring exposition recap dump and gives us a few classic quotes, a reminder of the toll of the first film, and the indifferent face of the Weyland-Yutani corp. Seeing Ripley eventually explode at them felt like a good early bit of catharsis.

(2) All of the marines waking up: I’ve never seen this talked about, but this sequence is one of the best I’ve seen where a whole bunch of characters are introduced at once in a natural and memorable way. Seeing Apone wake up from hypersleep to immediately start chomping on a cigar always cracks me up, and the banter between everyone establishes their personalities in a way that further plays out in the rest of the film.

(3) Ripley showing off with the power loader: Not only is this an important detail for the ending, but it also gives her a great moment of competence and teamwork instead of being, as she calls it, “a fifth wheel.” Plus, seeing Apone and Hicks’ crack up — and Apone saying “please” — tickles me.

(4) The initial tour of Hadley’s Hope by the marines doesn’t feature any action, but it’s a great example of environmental storytelling. The audience and the marines piece together what happened during the colonists’ last stand against the xenomorphs, and it only adds to the growing tension.

(5) Ripley’s rescue in the APC feels like an early climax of the film. It shows how, when pushed to the brink, she shows up and delivers in a way that Gorman couldn’t. The music, the action, “Marines we are LEAVING!” is top notch.

(6) The facehugger attack in the med center is so deliciously tense — and an excellent display of puppetry. It’s Ripley vs. Burke, and she wins by her ingenuity. Hudson even gets to be a hero in this moment.

(7) For my money, the scene with the motion trackers and the survivors realizing — too late — that the xenomorphs are in the ceiling is the best in ratcheting up tension in this film. Seeing that many aliens crawling right at the heroes was an “OH CRAP” moment right before the big fight.

(8) Gorman and Vasquez dying together in the ducts always makes me choke up a bit. It’s so sudden and yet poignant. She hates him and he’s never really acquitted himself before, but in this moment he comes back for her, they get trapped, and he pulls out the grenade to take out the aliens and themselves. That brief moment of the two grabbing onto the grenade and staring at it before the boom is superb.

(9) Never before and never since have we seen so much combat welding in a film. So much welding.

(10) You want a master class of wordless acting? Watch the scene of Ripley in the elevator. She does her prep stuff, but after that you see her get mentally psyched. She allows herself to be scared… then banishes it and gets ready for battle. It’s maybe my favorite scene Sigourney Weaver’s ever done.

(11) Speaking of wordless scenes, that entire egg room sequence, start to finish, is incredible. When the queen calls off her troops but allows an egg to open anyway, Ripley’s face conveys it all: She’s done with this. Flamethrower, pulse rifle, and grenade carnage ensures.

(12) The final fight, in all its score-free glory (until Ripley gets grabbed) is of course excellent, but it’s Newt’s “mommy!” cry at the end that puts a perfect cap on Ripley’s arc. And then the movie ends as it began, in the calm of hypersleep.

Sometimes with special editions or director’s cuts, what you’re getting is some stuff spliced back in that really should’ve stayed on the cutting room floor. In most cases, those re-additions change the pacing and don’t add much to your favorite flick.

Not so here. Aliens: Special Edition was overseen by James Cameron and initially released back in 1991, just five years after it came out in theaters. It only includes about 15 or so minutes of extra scenes, but what we get in those minutes enhances an already phenomenal package, not dilutes.

The 2.5-hour special edition puts one big wrong of the theatrical version to right: It brings back in a crucial early scene in which Ripley finds out that her daughter died during Ripley’s 57 year hypersleep. This loss marks the start of her arc to become a mother again with Newt, so it’s boggling that the studio had it removed in the first place.

Other added scenes include a look at the colony before the infestation (and the re-discovery of the alien ship), Newt’s full family, extra establishing shots and dialogue, a longer tour through the Sulaco and (later) an abandoned Hadley’s Hope, a subplot where the marines use sentry guns to fend off the xenomorphs, and a hint at a romance between Ripley and Hicks. Other than the sentry gun stuff (which is fine), most of it is before they go back to the planet, which means it takes longer to get to the horror/action in exchange for more character development.

The only addition I don’t like is a bit of Hudson’s posturing on the way down to the planet. It sounds like he’s ad libbing about all his weapons and ends up repeating himself a few times. That could’ve been kept on the cutting room floor.

A perfect movie gets better the more you watch it, not less, and that’s what I’ve encountered with Aliens. The special edition is the way it should be watched, so if you’ve missed out on this so far, your orders are to see it soon. Affirmative? Affirmative.