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220-473: Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film written and directed by James Cameron . It is the sequel to the 1979 science fiction horror film Alien , and the second film in the Alien franchise . Set in the far future, it stars Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley , the sole survivor of an alien attack on her ship. When communications are lost with a human colony on the moon where her crew first encountered

440-454: A fission-fusion hybrid . In these systems, the power output is enhanced by the fission events, and power is extracted using systems like those in conventional fission reactors. Designs that use other fuels, notably the proton-boron aneutronic fusion reaction, release much more of their energy in the form of charged particles. In these cases, power extraction systems based on the movement of these charges are possible. Direct energy conversion

660-411: A probability distribution . If the plasma is thermalized , the distribution looks like a Gaussian curve , or Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution . In this case, it is useful to use the average particle cross section over the velocity distribution. This is entered into the volumetric fusion rate: where: The Lawson criterion considers the energy balance between the energy produced in fusion reactions to

880-479: A tokamak -based reactor. The system was able to manipulate the magnetic coils to manage the plasma. The system was able to continuously adjust to maintain appropriate behavior (more complex than step-based systems). In 2014, Google began working with California-based fusion company TAE Technologies to control the Joint European Torus (JET) to predict plasma behavior. DeepMind has also developed

1100-511: A western frontier town. It featured a makeshift construction from cargo containers, broken filming equipment, and beer crates. The alien nest scene was one of the earliest filmed; Weaver's participation was delayed by three weeks because of production issues on her previous film Half Moon Street (1986), and the scene was one of the few not involving her. The Acton Power Station location was filled with decaying asbestos and three weeks were spent having it professionally cleaned, during which time

1320-473: A 1.5 nanosecond laser fire, 100 times greater than reported in previous experiments. Structural material stability is a critical issue. Materials that can survive the high temperatures and neutron bombardment experienced in a fusion reactor are considered key to success. The principal issues are the conditions generated by the plasma, neutron degradation of wall surfaces, and the related issue of plasma-wall surface conditions. Reducing hydrogen permeability

1540-554: A 42-page film treatment for Alien   II —written in three days—based on Giler and Hill's suggestion of "Ripley and soldiers". The studio had a mixed reaction, one executive calling it a constant stream of horror without character development. Negotiations to sell the sequel rights to Rambo 's developers Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna failed and the project stalled again. By July 1984, Lawrence Gordon had replaced Wizan. With few projects in development, Gordon looked at sequels to Fox's existing properties and came across

1760-512: A British cinema and media theorist and cultural critic: Science fiction film is a film genre which emphasizes actual, extrapolative, or 2.0 speculative science and the empirical method , interacting in a social context with the lesser emphasized, but still present, transcendentalism of magic and religion , in an attempt to reconcile man with the unknown. This definition suggests a continuum between (real-world) empiricism and ( supernatural ) transcendentalism , with science fiction films on

1980-524: A Friend for the End of the World ( 2012 ), Safety Not Guaranteed ( 2013 ), and Pixels (2015), romance films such as Her (2013), Monsters (2010), and Ex Machina (2015), heist films including Inception (2010) and action films including Real Steel (2011), Total Recall (2012), Edge of Tomorrow ( 2014 ), Pacific Rim (2013), Chappie (2015), Tomorrowland (2015), and Ghost in

2200-445: A body harness, was used to show more of the tail moving through Bishop, and Henriksen was levered upward as if he was being lifted by the tail. To complete the effect, a dummy of Bishop was constructed with a spring-loaded mechanism that forcibly separated his upper and lower body, as if the queen had ripped him in half. Once separated, Henriksen's upper body was below the set and a fake torso attached up to his shoulders. The android blood

2420-555: A cameo appearance as Ripley's elderly daughter Amanda. The success of Alien (1979) led to immediate discussions of a sequel, but the production company Brandywine Productions struggled to convince 20th Century Fox to make it. Studio president Alan Ladd Jr. was supportive of the project but left Fox to found the Ladd Company , and his replacement, Norman Levy, was concerned about the cost of producing an Alien   II . Brandywine co-founder David Giler said Levy believed

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2640-474: A civilization's level of technological advancement into types. Due to its exponential nature, sci-fi civilizations usually only attain Type I (harnessing all the energy attainable from a single planet), and strictly speaking often not even that. The concept of life, particularly intelligent life, having an extraterrestrial origin is a popular staple of science fiction films. Early films often used alien life forms as

2860-405: A cocooned Burke begging her for death. Fox and Hurd suggested removing a long opening scene detailing the lives of the colonists, Newt's family discovering the derelict alien ship, and her father being attacked by a facehugger, because it ruined the pacing and sense of mystery. Two scenes with James Remar as Hicks (shown from the back) were used in the film. Ray Lovejoy was responsible for editing

3080-462: A colonist's chest, rousing several adult aliens who ambush the Marines, killing or capturing many of them. When the inexperienced Gorman panics, Ripley assumes command, takes control of their armored personnel carrier , and rams the nest to rescue Corporal Dwayne Hicks and Privates Hudson and Vasquez. Hicks orders the dropship to recover the survivors, but a stowaway alien kills the pilots, causing

3300-513: A combination of a praying mantis and Tyrannosaurus rex influenced by the alien warrior design. Cameron said dinosaur influences were unintentional as he considered them "boring"; his goal was to extrapolate on Giger's warrior designs to create a large and powerful creature that was also swift and overtly female, describing it as "hideous and beautiful at the same time, like a black widow spider". The queen has elongated, large forelimbs, with smaller secondary ones underneath, but Winston redesigned

3520-461: A control scheme with TCV . The diagnostics of a fusion scientific reactor are extremely complex and varied. The diagnostics required for a fusion power reactor will be various but less complicated than those of a scientific reactor as by the time of commercialization, many real-time feedback and control diagnostics will have been perfected. However, the operating environment of a commercial fusion reactor will be harsher for diagnostic systems than in

3740-463: A financial loss despite its earnings of over $ 100   million against a $ 9–$ 11   million budget. Brandywine's lawsuit was settled by early 1983, the result being that Fox would finance the development of Alien   II , but was not required to distribute the film. Levy's eventual replacement, Joe Wizan , was receptive to a sequel, and although other executives remained noncommittal, Giler's development executive, Larry Wilson, began looking for

3960-434: A greater repulsive force. For nuclei lighter than iron-56, the reaction is exothermic , releasing energy when they fuse. Since hydrogen has a single proton in its nucleus, it requires the least effort to attain fusion, and yields the most net energy output. Also since it has one electron, hydrogen is the easiest fuel to fully ionize. The repulsive electrostatic interaction between nuclei operates across larger distances than

4180-404: A large sphere with antennae, but Cameron wanted it to be flatter; the full craft had to pass the camera, and a sphere would not work with the aspect ratio . Mead designed the craft as a commercial freighter carrying a military unit. Its exterior was designed with a row of loading doors, a crane, and large gun fixtures to defend against threats. Mirrors were used as a cost-cutting measure to increase

4400-598: A laser cutting Ripley free from her hypersleep chamber. According to Henriksen, Paxton was unaware he would be involved in the knife-trick scene until it was filmed; Henriksen nicked Paxton's finger during the reshoot. Some of the early establishing scenes were filmed near the end of principal photography to capture the bond that had developed between cast and characters. Some improvisation was encouraged. Weaver discussed tweaks to her character with Cameron on set, believing she understood how Ripley would act. Her line "Get away from her, you bitch!" had to be filmed in one take due to

4620-437: A learning experience. They were essential for moving larger parts of the queen puppet, including the head, and a foot pedal in the body could hydraulically move the tail up and down. Shane Mahan took several weeks to sculpt the head by sight, based on a maquette ; computer technology to scale up the model's design did not yet exist. Two heads were built: a lightweight, fragile one; and another that could survive some damage. Each

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4840-401: A long tradition of movies featuring monster attacks. These differ from similar films in the horror or fantasy genres because science fiction films typically rely on a scientific (or at least pseudo-scientific) rationale for the monster's existence, rather than a supernatural or magical reason. Often, the science fiction film monster is created, awakened, or "evolves" because of the machinations of

5060-441: A low-budget, independent horror film, and the studio was reluctant to grant his request. His credibility was elevated following the surprise financial and critical success of The Terminator in late 1984, and Gordon gave him the job. Cameron's associates tried to persuade him to reject the offer, believing anything good about the film would be attributed to Alien director Ridley Scott and anything negative to Cameron. Scott said he

5280-407: A machine holding a thermalized and quasi- neutral plasma has to generate enough energy to overcome its energy losses. The amount of energy released in a given volume is a function of the temperature, and thus the reaction rate on a per-particle basis, the density of particles within that volume, and finally the confinement time, the length of time that energy stays within the volume. This is known as

5500-533: A mad scientist, a nuclear accident, or a scientific experiment gone awry. Typical examples include The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Jurassic Park films, Cloverfield , Pacific Rim , the King Kong films, and the Godzilla franchise or the many films involving Frankenstein's monster . The core mental aspects of what makes us human has been a staple of science fiction films, particularly since

5720-462: A moderate success. The strongest contributors to the genre during the second half of the 1980s were James Cameron and Paul Verhoeven with The Terminator and RoboCop entries. Robert Zemeckis ' film Back to the Future ( 1985 ) and its sequels were critically praised and became box office successes, not to mention international phenomena. James Cameron's sequel to Alien , Aliens ( 1986 ),

5940-530: A number of science fiction comic strips were adapted as serials , notably Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers , both starring Buster Crabbe . These serials, and the comic strips they were based on, were very popular with the general public. Other notable science fiction films of the 1930s include Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Doctor X (1932), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), F.P.1 (1932), Island of Lost Souls (1932), Deluge (1933), The Invisible Man (1933), Master of

6160-409: A particle accelerator to produce this energy. An atom loses its electrons once it is heated past its ionization energy . An ion is the name for the resultant bare nucleus. The result of this ionization is plasma, which is a heated cloud of ions and free electrons that were formerly bound to them. Plasmas are electrically conducting and magnetically controlled because the charges are separated. This

6380-463: A particular area or time period. This is not true of the science fiction film. However, there are several common visual elements that are evocative of the genre. These include the spacecraft or space station, alien worlds or creatures, robots, and futuristic gadgets. Examples include movies like Lost in Space , Serenity , Avatar , Prometheus , Tomorrowland , Passengers , and Valerian and

6600-500: A particular concern of the writer by serving as a vehicle of warning against a type of activity, including technological research. In the case of alien invasion films, the creatures can provide as a stand-in for a feared foreign power. Films that fit into the Disaster film typically also fall into the following general categories: While monster films do not usually depict danger on a global or epic scale, science fiction film also has

6820-545: A plasma oscillating device, a magnetically shielded-grid, a penning trap , the polywell , and the F1 cathode driver concept. The fuels considered for fusion power have all been light elements like the isotopes of hydrogen— protium , deuterium , and tritium . The deuterium and helium-3 reaction requires helium-3, an isotope of helium so scarce on Earth that it would have to be mined extraterrestrially or produced by other nuclear reactions. Ultimately, researchers hope to adopt

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7040-565: A popular staple of science fiction film and science fiction television series. Time travel usually involves the use of some type of advanced technology, such as H. G. Wells' classic The Time Machine , the commercially successful 1980s-era Back to the Future trilogy, the Bill & Ted trilogy, the Terminator series, Déjà Vu (2006), Source Code (2011), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and Predestination (2014). Other movies, such as

7260-410: A power-loader suit. Because of his low expectations for The Terminator , Cameron had spent much of his free time during its production developing and trying out ideas for Alien   II . This script was better received by Fox executives and Gordon, but Cameron also wanted to direct the project. Cameron was a relatively new director, his only directing credit being Piranha II: The Spawning (1982),

7480-419: A practical and economical manner. A second issue that affects common reactions is managing neutrons that are released during the reaction, which over time degrade many common materials used within the reaction chamber. Fusion researchers have investigated various confinement concepts. The early emphasis was on three main systems: z-pinch , stellarator , and magnetic mirror . The current leading designs are

7700-476: A scientific reactor because continuous operations may involve higher plasma temperatures and higher levels of neutron irradiation. In many proposed approaches, commercialization will require the additional ability to measure and separate diverter gases, for example helium and impurities, and to monitor fuel breeding, for instance the state of a tritium breeding liquid lithium liner. The following are some basic techniques. Neutron blankets absorb neutrons, which heats

7920-407: A scriptwriter by mid-1983. Wilson came across the script for the in-development science fiction film, The Terminator (1984), written by James Cameron . With Cameron's collaborative scriptwriting efforts alongside Sylvester Stallone on Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Wilson was convinced to show the script for The Terminator to Giler, Hill, and Carroll. In November 1983, Cameron submitted

8140-440: A sequel would be a "disaster". Fox executives believed Alien ' s success was a fluke, and that it had not generated enough profit or audience interest to warrant a sequel. Box-office returns for horror films were also declining. Progress was further slowed when Giler and Brandywine co-founders Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll sued Fox for unpaid profits from Alien . Using Hollywood accounting methods, Fox had declared Alien

8360-452: A series of D-T tests at JET , the vacuum vessel was sufficiently radioactive that it required remote handling for the year following the tests. In a production setting, the neutrons would react with lithium in the breeding blanket composed of lithium ceramic pebbles or liquid lithium, yielding tritium. The energy of the neutrons ends up in the lithium, which would then be transferred to drive electrical production. The lithium blanket protects

8580-413: A shell, driving the shell to radiate x-rays , which then implode the pellet. The beams are commonly laser beams, but ion and electron beams have been investigated. Electrostatic confinement fusion devices use electrostatic fields. The best known is the fusor . This device has a cathode inside an anode wire cage. Positive ions fly towards the negative inner cage, and are heated by the electric field in

8800-657: A special metal called unobtainium. That same year, Terminator Salvation was released and garnered only moderate success. The 2010s saw new entries in several classic science fiction franchises, including Predators ( 2010 ), Tron: Legacy (2010), a resurgence of the Star Wars series, and entries into the Planet of the Apes and Godzilla franchises. Several more cross-genre films have also been produced, including comedies such as Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), Seeking

9020-459: A split-second before their demise, and then use their bodies for spare parts. Fusion power Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions . In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices designed to harness this energy are known as fusion reactors. Research into fusion reactors began in

Aliens (film) - Misplaced Pages Continue

9240-415: A spring that caused it to snap back and forth. Winston added arms to the chestburster alien form (since the adult form had arms), explaining how it could drag itself out of a host's chest. Two chestburster puppets were used: a reinforced one, and an articulated one for movement. A puppeteer punched the former through a fabricated latex-foam chest; the scene took several takes to film because it could not pierce

9460-422: A surface of the device, and transfer a portion of their kinetic energy to the other atoms. The rate of conduction is also based on the temperature and density. Radiation is energy that leaves the cloud as light. Radiation also increases with temperature as well as the mass of the ions. Fusion power systems must operate in a region where the rate of fusion is higher than the losses. The Lawson criterion argues that

9680-483: A threat or peril to the human race, where the invaders were frequently fictional representations of actual military or political threats on Earth as observed in films such as Mars Attacks! , Starship Troopers , the Alien series, the Predator series, and The Chronicles of Riddick series. Some aliens were represented as benign and even beneficial in nature in such films as Escape to Witch Mountain , E.T.

9900-407: A time when the science-fiction genre was generally overlooked. It earned $ 131.1–183.3   million during its theatrical run, making it one of the highest-grossing films of 1986 worldwide. Aliens is now considered among the greatest films of the 1980s , and among the best science fiction, action, and sequel films ever made, arguably equal to or better than Alien . It is credited with expanding

10120-435: A traumatized young girl nicknamed Newt. The team locates the colonists beneath the fusion-powered atmosphere processing station and heads to their location, descending into corridors covered in alien secretions. At the station's center, the Marines find opened eggs and dead facehuggers alongside the cocooned colonists, now serving as incubators for the creatures' offspring. The Marines kill an infant alien after it bursts from

10340-423: A variety of heating methods that were developed in the early 1970s. In modern machines, as of 2019 , the major remaining issue was the confinement time. Plasmas in strong magnetic fields are subject to a number of inherent instabilities, which must be suppressed to reach useful durations. One way to do this is to simply make the reactor volume larger, which reduces the rate of leakage due to classical diffusion . This

10560-586: A wide release in the United States (U.S.) and Canada on July   18, 1986. During its opening weekend, the film earned $ 10.1   million from 1,437 theaters—an average of $ 6,995 per theater. It was the weekend's number-one film, ahead of the martial-arts drama The Karate Kid Part II ($ 5.6   million in its fifth weekend) and the black comedy Ruthless People ($ 4.5   million in its fourth weekend). Based on its opening-five-day total ($ 13.4   million), Aliens exceeded Fox's expectations and

10780-595: Is a popular scientific element in films as depicted in Jurassic Park (cloning of extinct species), The Island (cloning of humans), and ( genetic modification ) in some superhero movies and in the Alien series. Cybernetics and holographic projections as depicted in RoboCop and I, Robot are also popularized. Interstellar travel and teleportation is a popular theme in the Star Trek series that

11000-700: Is a popular theme in Independence Day while invisibility is also popular in Star Trek . Arc reactor technology, featured in Iron Man , is similar to a cold fusion device. Miniaturization technology where people are shrunk to microscopic sizes is featured in films like Fantastic Voyage (1966), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), and Marvel's Ant-Man (2015). The late Arthur C. Clarke 's third law states that "any sufficiently advanced technology

11220-564: Is achieved through warp drives and transporters while intergalactic travel is popular in films such as Stargate and Star Wars that is achieved through hyperspace or wormholes . Nanotechnology is also featured in the Star Trek series in the form of replicators (utopia), in The Day the Earth Stood Still in the form of grey goo (dystopia), and in Iron Man 3 in the form of extremis (nanotubes) . Force fields

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11440-471: Is also common in research. The optimum energy to initiate this reaction is 15 keV, only slightly higher than that for the D-T reaction. The first branch produces tritium, so that a D-D reactor is not tritium-free, even though it does not require an input of tritium or lithium. Unless the tritons are quickly removed, most of the tritium produced is burned in the reactor, which reduces the handling of tritium, with

11660-813: Is an exception. The first depiction of a sophisticated robot in a United States film was Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still . Robots in films are often sentient and sometimes sentimental, and they have filled a range of roles in science fiction films. Robots have been supporting characters, such as Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet , Huey, Dewey and Louie in Silent Running , Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation , sidekicks (e.g., C-3PO and R2-D2 from Star Wars , JARVIS from Iron Man ), and extras, visible in

11880-497: Is called "tritium suppressed fusion". The removed tritium decays to He with a 12.5 year half life. By recycling the He decay into the reactor, the fusion reactor does not require materials resistant to fast neutrons. Assuming complete tritium burn-up, the reduction in the fraction of fusion energy carried by neutrons would be only about 18%, so that the primary advantage of the D-D fuel cycle

12100-699: Is featured in Minority Report as well as in The Matrix saga (in which precognition is achieved by knowing the artificial world). Robots have been a part of science fiction since the Czech playwright Karel Čapek coined the word in 1921. In early films, robots were usually played by a human actor in a boxy metal suit, as in The Phantom Empire , although the female robot in Metropolis

12320-428: Is formed by oxidation alone. Alternative methods utilize specific gas environments with strong magnetic and electric fields. Assessment of barrier performance represents an additional challenge. Classical coated membranes gas permeation continues to be the most reliable method to determine hydrogen permeation barrier (HPB) efficiency. In 2021, in response to increasing numbers of designs for fusion power reactors for 2040,

12540-506: Is indistinguishable from magic". Past science fiction films have depicted "fictional" ("magical") technologies that became present reality. For example, the Personal Access Display Device from Star Trek was a precursor of smartphones and tablet computers . Gesture recognition in the movie Minority Report is part of current game consoles . Human-level artificial intelligence is also fast approaching with

12760-439: Is regarded as one of the best movies of the period, Planet of the Apes (1968) and Fahrenheit 451 ( 1966 ), which provided social commentary, and the campy Barbarella (1968), which explored the comical side of earlier science fiction. Jean-Luc Godard 's French "new wave" film Alphaville (1965) posited a futuristic Paris commanded by an artificial intelligence which has outlawed all emotion. The era of crewed trips to

12980-539: Is remote telepresence via androids as depicted in Surrogates and Iron Man 3 . As artificial intelligence becomes smarter due to increasing computer power , some sci-fi dreams have already been realized. For example, the computer Deep Blue beat the world chess champion in 1997 and a documentary film, Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine , was released in 2003. Another famous computer called Watson defeated

13200-525: Is seen as crucial to hydrogen recycling and control of the tritium inventory. Materials with the lowest bulk hydrogen solubility and diffusivity provide the optimal candidates for stable barriers. A few pure metals, including tungsten and beryllium, and compounds such as carbides, dense oxides, and nitrides have been investigated. Research has highlighted that coating techniques for preparing well-adhered and perfect barriers are of equivalent importance. The most attractive techniques are those in which an ad-layer

13420-611: Is still considerably higher compared to fission reactors. Because the confinement properties of the tokamak and laser pellet fusion are marginal, most proposals for aneutronic fusion are based on radically different confinement concepts, such as the Polywell and the Dense Plasma Focus . In 2013, a research team led by Christine Labaune at École Polytechnique , reported a new fusion rate record for proton-boron fusion, with an estimated 80 million fusion reactions during

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13640-404: Is that tritium breeding is not required. Other advantages are independence from lithium resources and a somewhat softer neutron spectrum. The disadvantage of D-D compared to D-T is that the energy confinement time (at a given pressure) must be 30 times longer and the power produced (at a given pressure and volume) is 68 times less. Assuming complete removal of tritium and He recycling, only 6% of

13860-404: Is unaffected by the confinement scheme. In most designs, it is captured in a thick "blanket" of lithium surrounding the reactor core. When struck by a high-energy neutron, the blanket heats up. It is then actively cooled with a working fluid that drives a turbine to produce power. Another design proposed to use the neutrons to breed fission fuel in a blanket of nuclear waste , a concept known as

14080-416: Is used by several fusion devices to confine the hot particles. A reaction's cross section , denoted σ, measures the probability that a fusion reaction will happen. This depends on the relative velocity of the two nuclei. Higher relative velocities generally increase the probability, but the probability begins to decrease again at very high energies. In a plasma, particle velocity can be characterized using

14300-525: Is whether robots will someday replace humans, a question raised in the film adaptation of Isaac Asimov 's I, Robot (in jobs) and in the film Real Steel (in sports), or whether intelligent robots could develop a conscience and a motivation to protect, take over, or destroy the human race (as depicted in The Terminator , Transformers , and in Avengers: Age of Ultron ). Another theme

14520-404: Is why ITER is so large. In contrast, inertial confinement systems approach useful triple product values via higher density, and have short confinement intervals. In NIF , the initial frozen hydrogen fuel load has a density less than water that is increased to about 100 times the density of lead. In these conditions, the rate of fusion is so high that the fuel fuses in the microseconds it takes for

14740-442: The Planet of the Apes series, Timeline (2003) and The Last Mimzy (2007), explained their depictions of time travel by drawing on physics concepts such as the special relativity phenomenon of time dilation (which could occur if a spaceship was travelling near the speed of light) and wormholes . Some films show time travel not being attained from advanced technology, but rather from an inner source or personal power, such as

14960-565: The Power Rangers (2017) reboot was greatly improved as compared to the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995). While "size does matter", a famous tagline of the movie Godzilla , incredibly small robots, called nanobots , do matter as well (e.g. Borg nanoprobes in Star Trek and nanites in I, Robot ). The concept of time travel —travelling backwards and forwards through time—has always been

15180-457: The Star Wars prequel trilogy , or the huge robot probes seen in Monsters vs. Aliens ). In some cases, robots have even been the leading characters in science fiction films; in the film Blade Runner (1982), many of the characters are bioengineered android " replicants ". This is also present in the animated films WALL-E (2008), Astro Boy (2009), Big Hero 6 (2014), Ghost in

15400-529: The Alien   II treatment; he said he was surprised that no one had pursued it. Production of The Terminator was delayed for nine months because Arnold Schwarzenegger was contractually obligated to film Conan the Destroyer (1984). Cameron used the time to develop his treatment, expanding it to ninety pages. He drew ideas from "Mother", one of his story concepts about an alien on a space station involving

15620-656: The Nostromo , to escape an alien creature that slaughtered the rest of the crew. She is rescued and debriefed by her employers at the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, who are skeptical of her claim about alien eggs in a derelict ship on the exomoon LV-426, now the site of a terraforming colony. After contact is lost with the colony, Weyland-Yutani representative Carter Burke and Colonial Marine Lieutenant Gorman ask Ripley to accompany them to investigate. Still traumatized by her alien encounter, she agrees on

15840-466: The Star Wars prequel trilogy began with the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , which eventually grossed over one billion dollars. As the decade progressed, computers played an increasingly important role in both the addition of special effects (thanks to Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park ) and the production of films. As software developed in sophistication it

16060-676: The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority published the UK Fusion Materials Roadmap 2021–2040 , focusing on five priority areas, with a focus on tokamak family reactors: In a plasma that is embedded in a magnetic field (known as a magnetized plasma) the fusion rate scales as the magnetic field strength to the 4th power. For this reason, many fusion companies that rely on magnetic fields to control their plasma are trying to develop high temperature superconducting devices. In 2021, SuperOx,

16280-616: The Washington Monument . Cultural theorist Scott Bukatman has proposed that science fiction film allows contemporary culture to witness an expression of the sublime , be it through exaggerated scale, apocalypse or transcendence. Science fiction films appeared early in the silent film era, typically as short films shot in black and white, sometimes with colour tinting. They usually had a technological theme and were often intended to be humorous. In 1902 , Georges Méliès released Le Voyage dans la Lune , generally considered

16500-469: The cyberpunk genre spawned several movies on the theme of the computer-human interface, such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day ( 1991 ), Total Recall ( 1990 ), The Lawnmower Man ( 1992 ), and The Matrix ( 1999 ). Other themes included disaster films (e.g., Armageddon and Deep Impact , both 1998 ), alien invasion (e.g., Independence Day ( 1996 )) and genetic experimentation (e.g., Jurassic Park ( 1993 ) and Gattaca ( 1997 )). Also,

16720-642: The tokamak and inertial confinement (ICF) by laser . Both designs are under research at very large scales, most notably the ITER tokamak in France and the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser in the United States. Researchers are also studying other designs that may offer less expensive approaches. Among these alternatives, there is increasing interest in magnetized target fusion and inertial electrostatic confinement , and new variations of

16940-415: The uranium enrichment process. Tritium is a natural isotope of hydrogen, but because it has a short half-life of 12.32 years, it is hard to find, store, produce, and is expensive. Consequently, the deuterium-tritium fuel cycle requires the breeding of tritium from lithium using one of the following reactions: The reactant neutron is supplied by the D-T fusion reaction shown above, and the one that has

17160-452: The virtual reality world became a real-world prison for humanity, managed by intelligent machines. In movies such as eXistenZ , The Thirteenth Floor , and Inception , the nature of reality and virtual reality become intermixed with no clear distinguishing boundary. Telekinesis and telepathy are featured in movies like Star Wars , The Last Mimzy , Race to Witch Mountain , Chronicle , and Lucy while precognition

17380-827: The young adult dystopian fiction subgenre, popular in the early part of the decade. These include the Hunger Games film series , based on the trilogy of novels by Suzanne Collins , The Divergent Series based on Veronica Roth 's Divergent trilogy , and the Maze Runner series , based on James Dashner 's The Maze Runner novels . Several adult adaptations have also been produced, including The Martian (2015), based on Andy Weir 's 2011 novel , Cloud Atlas (2012), based on David Mitchell 's 2004 novel , World War Z , based on Max Brooks ' 2006 novel , and Ready Player One (2018), based on Ernest Cline 's 2011 novel . Independent productions also increased in

17600-412: The " mad scientist " transferring the human mind to another body is as old as Frankenstein while the idea of corporations behind mind transfer technologies is observed in later films such as Gamer , Avatar , and Surrogates . Films such as Total Recall have popularized a thread of films that explore the concept of reprogramming the human mind. The theme of brainwashing in several films of

17820-410: The "triple product": the plasma density, temperature, and confinement time. In magnetic confinement, the density is low, on the order of a "good vacuum". For instance, in the ITER device the fuel density is about 1.0 × 10 m , which is about one-millionth atmospheric density. This means that the temperature and/or confinement time must increase. Fusion-relevant temperatures have been achieved using

18040-457: The 1940s, but as of 2024, no device has reached net power, although net positive reactions have been achieved. Fusion processes require fuel and a confined environment with sufficient temperature , pressure , and confinement time to create a plasma in which fusion can occur. The combination of these figures that results in a power-producing system is known as the Lawson criterion . In stars

18260-623: The 1950s, Ray Harryhausen , protege of master King Kong animator Willis O'Brien, used stop-motion animation to create special effects for the following notable science fiction films: It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957). The most successful monster movies were Japanese film studio Toho 's kaiju films directed by Ishirō Honda and featuring special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya . The 1954 film Godzilla , with

18480-476: The 1960s, but some of the films transformed science fiction cinema. Stanley Kubrick 's 2001: A Space Odyssey ( 1968 ) brought new realism to the genre, with its groundbreaking visual effects and realistic portrayal of space travel and influenced the genre with its epic story and transcendent philosophical scope. Other 1960s films included Planet of the Vampires (1965) by Italian filmmaker Mario Bava , that

18700-482: The 1970s included Woody Allen 's Sleeper ( 1973 ), and John Carpenter 's Dark Star ( 1974 ). The sports science fiction genre can be seen in films such as Rollerball (1975). Star Wars ( 1977 ) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind ( 1977 ) were box-office hits that brought about a huge increase in science fiction films. In 1979 , Star Trek: The Motion Picture brought the television series to

18920-408: The 1980s. Ridley Scott 's Blade Runner (1982), an adaptation of Philip K. Dick 's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? , examined what made an organic-creation a human, while the RoboCop series saw an android mechanism fitted with the brain and reprogrammed mind of a human to create a cyborg . The idea of brain transfer was not entirely new to science fiction film, as the concept of

19140-443: The 2000s-era films Donnie Darko , Mr. Nobody , The Butterfly Effect , and X-Men: Days of Future Past . More conventional time travel movies use technology to bring the past to life in the present, or in a present that lies in our future. The film Iceman (1984) told the story of the reanimation of a frozen Neanderthal . The film Freejack (1992) shows time travel used to pull victims of horrible deaths forward in time

19360-579: The 2010s, with the rise of digital filmmaking making it easier for filmmakers to produce movies on a smaller budget. These films include Attack the Block (2011), Source Code (2011), Looper (2012), Upstream Color (2013), Ex Machina (2015), and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017). In 2016, Ex Machina won the Academy Award for Visual Effects in a surprising upset over

19580-490: The British Special Air Service (SAS). Vietnam War veteran Al Matthews (Apone) helped to train the actors, teaching them how to handle firearms properly because their blanks were still hazardous. Before he left, Remar accidentally shot a hole through the set of Frank Oz 's Little Shop of Horrors on an adjacent stage. The training was intended to help the marine cast develop camaraderie and treat

19800-573: The British crew at Pinewood Studios . The difficult shoot affected the composer, James Horner , who was given little time to record the music. Aliens was released on July 18, 1986, to critical acclaim. Reviewers praised its action, but some criticized the intensity of some scenes. Weaver's performance garnered consistent praise along with those of Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein . The film received several awards and nominations, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for Weaver at

20020-515: The City of a Thousand Planets . More subtle visual clues can appear with changes of the human form through modifications in appearance, size, or behavior, or by means a known environment turned eerily alien, such as an empty city The Omega Man (1971). While science is a major element of this genre, many movie studios take significant liberties with scientific knowledge. Such liberties can be most readily observed in films that show spacecraft maneuvering in outer space . The vacuum should preclude

20240-568: The Earth Stood Still , and The Watch , the aliens were nearly human in physical appearance, and communicated in a common earth language. However, the aliens in Stargate and Prometheus were human in physical appearance but communicated in an alien language. A few films have tried to represent intelligent aliens as something utterly different from the usual humanoid shape (e.g. An intelligent life form surrounding an entire planet in Solaris ,

20460-772: The Extra-Terrestrial , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , The Fifth Element , The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , Avatar , Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets , and the Men in Black series. In order to provide subject matter to which audiences can relate, the large majority of intelligent alien races presented in films have an anthropomorphic nature, possessing human emotions and motivations. In films like Cocoon , My Stepmother Is an Alien , Species , Contact , The Box , Knowing , The Day

20680-523: The Lawson criterion requirements with less extreme conditions. Most designs aim to heat their fuel to around 100 million kelvins, which presents a major challenge in producing a successful design. Tritium is extremely rare on Earth, having a half life of only ~12.3 years. Consequently, during the operation of envisioned fusion reactors, known as breeder reactors, helium cooled pebble beds (HCPBs) are subjected to neutron fluxes to generate tritium to complete

20900-790: The Moon in 1969 and the 1970s saw a resurgence of interest in the science fiction film. Andrei Tarkovsky 's Solaris ( 1972 ) and Stalker ( 1979 ) are two widely acclaimed examples of the renewed interest of film auteurs in science fiction. Science fiction films from the early 1970s explored the theme of paranoia, in which humanity is depicted as under threat from sociological, ecological or technological adversaries of its own creation, such as George Lucas 's directional debut THX 1138 ( 1971 ), The Andromeda Strain ( 1971 ), Silent Running ( 1972 ), Soylent Green ( 1973 ), Westworld ( 1973 ) and its sequel Futureworld ( 1976 ), and Logan's Run ( 1976 ). The science fiction comedies of

21120-468: The Pinewood crew walked out in the middle of the day. Cameron called Fox for advice and was determined to move the production out of England until Hurd convinced him otherwise. The situation was tumultuous because the number of films simultaneously in production meant the crew could not be easily replaced. Cameron and Hurd gathered the crew to discuss their grievances; Cameron explained the importance of

21340-584: The Pole (1912), Himmelskibet (1918; which with its runtime of 97 minutes generally is considered the first feature-length science fiction film in history), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Mechanical Man (1921), Paris Qui Dort (1923), Aelita (1924), Luch Smerti (1925), and The Lost World (1925). In the 1930s, there were several big budget science fiction films, notably Just Imagine (1930), King Kong (1933), Things to Come (1936), and Lost Horizon (1937). Starting in 1936,

21560-502: The Sea ( 1916 ) is a film based on Jules Verne ’s famous novel of a wondrous submarine and its vengeful captain. In the 1920s, European filmmakers tended to use science fiction for prediction and social commentary, as can be seen in German films such as Metropolis ( 1927 ) and Frau im Mond ( 1929 ). Other notable science fiction films of the silent era include The Impossible Voyage (1904), The Motorist (1906), The Conquest of

21780-530: The Shell (2017) and in Next Gen (2018). Films like Bicentennial Man , A.I. Artificial Intelligence , Chappie , and Ex Machina depicted the emotional fallouts of robots that are self-aware. Other films like The Animatrix (The Second Renaissance) present the consequences of mass-producing self-aware androids as humanity succumbs to their robot overlords. One popular theme in science fiction film

22000-1076: The Shell (2017). The superhero film boom has also continued, into films such as Iron Man 2 (2010) and Iron Man 3 (2013), several entries into the X-Men film series , and The Avengers (2012), which became the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time. New franchises such as Deadpool and Guardians of the Galaxy also began in this decade. Further into the decade, more realistic science fiction epic films also become prevalent, including Battleship (2012), Gravity (2013), Elysium (2013), Interstellar ( 2014 ), Mad Max: Fury Road ( 2015 ), The Martian ( 2015 ), Arrival ( 2016 ), Passengers (2016), and Blade Runner 2049 ( 2017 ). Many of these films have gained widespread accolades, including several Academy Award wins and nominations. These films have addressed recent matters of scientific interest, including space travel, climate change, and artificial intelligence. Alongside these original films, many adaptations were produced, especially within

22220-697: The World (1934), Mad Love (1935), Trans-Atlantic Tunnel (1935), The Devil-Doll (1936), The Invisible Ray (1936), The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936), The Walking Dead (1936), Non-Stop New York (1937), and The Return of Doctor X (1939). The 1940s brought us Before I Hang (1940), Black Friday (1940), Dr. Cyclops (1940), The Devil Commands (1941), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), Man Made Monster (1941), It Happened Tomorrow (1944), It Happens Every Spring (1949), and The Perfect Woman (1949). The release of Destination Moon (1950) and Rocketship X-M (1950) brought us to what many people consider "the golden age of

22440-776: The Worlds (1953), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), This Island Earth (1955), Forbidden Planet (1956), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) and On the Beach (1959). There is often a close connection between films in the science fiction genre and the so-called " monster movie ". Examples of this are Them! (1954), The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and The Blob (1958). During

22660-624: The actors in the suits) and imagined a dog was chasing her. Other cast members spent time with Henn between scenes, including Weaver and Paxton (who would color or craft things with her). Biehn said he and Paxton spent much of their free time together. Despite the difficulties, Fox was satisfied with the daily footage , and principal photography concluded in January 1986, on time and on budget. Post-production began in late April 1986. Several scenes were removed from Aliens ' theatrical release, including Ripley learning about her daughter's death and

22880-425: The actors' heads, and carefully blended into the larger set. After Remar was replaced, Cameron wanted to reshoot the scene, but the miniature had been destroyed; he was able to edit the scene to conceal Remar. The marines' smart guns weighed 65 to 70 pounds (29 to 32 kg), and were constructed from German MG 42 machine guns attached to a steadicam and augmented with motorcycle parts. Since getting in and out of

23100-534: The advent of smartphone A.I. while a working cloaking device / material is the main goal of stealth technology . Autonomous cars (e.g. KITT from the Knight Rider series) and quantum computers , like in the movie Stealth and Transcendence , also will be available eventually. Furthermore, although Clarke's laws do not classify "sufficiently advanced" technologies , the Kardashev scale measures

23320-411: The alien creatures, Ripley agrees to return to the site with a unit of Colonial Marines to investigate. Michael Biehn , Paul Reiser , Lance Henriksen , and Carrie Henn are featured in supporting roles. Despite the success of Alien , its sequel took years to develop due to lawsuits, a lack of enthusiasm from 20th Century Fox , and repeated management changes. Although relatively inexperienced, Cameron

23540-483: The alien hive brightly (counter to Cameron's request), and was eventually replaced with Adrian Biddle . First assistant director Derek Cracknell also ignored Cameron's requests. Gale described the situation: "⁠[Cameron] would ask him to set up a shot one way and [Cracknell] would say, 'Oh no no no, I know what you want,'   ... Then he'd do it wrong and the whole set would have to be broken down." The situation deteriorated until Cameron and Hurd fired Cracknell and

23760-403: The alien hive was fabricated in clay spawning hundreds of fiberglass and vacuum-formed castings that were installed at the station over a further three weeks. Cameron wanted to vertically pan as the marines entered the hive, but disguising the area above the marines would be time-intensive. A hanging miniature, about 12-foot (3.7 m) square, was made from plywood and styrofoam, hung just above

23980-576: The background to create a futuristic setting (e.g., Back to the Future Part II (1989), Total Recall (2012), RoboCop (2014)). As well, robots have been formidable movie villains or monsters (e.g., the robot Box in the film Logan's Run (1976), HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey , ARIIA in Eagle Eye , robot Sentinels in X-Men: Days of Future Past , the battle droids in

24200-691: The ball shaped creature in Dark Star , microbial-like creatures in The Invasion , shape-shifting creatures in Evolution ). Recent trends in films involve building-size alien creatures like in the movie Pacific Rim where the CGI has tremendously improved over the previous decades as compared in previous films such as Godzilla . A frequent theme among science fiction films is that of impending or actual disaster on an epic scale. These often address

24420-708: The big screen for the first time. It was also in this period that the Walt Disney Company released many science fiction films for family audiences such as The Black Hole , Flight of the Navigator , and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids . The sequels to Star Wars , The Empire Strikes Back ( 1980 ) and Return of the Jedi ( 1983 ), also saw worldwide box office success. Ridley Scott 's films, such as Alien ( 1979 ) and Blade Runner ( 1982 ), along with James Cameron 's The Terminator ( 1984 ), presented

24640-410: The blanket. Power can be extracted from the blanket in various ways: Confinement refers to all the conditions necessary to keep a plasma dense and hot long enough to undergo fusion. General principles: To produce self-sustaining fusion, part of the energy released by the reaction must be used to heat new reactants and maintain the conditions for fusion. Magnetic mirror effect. If a particle follows

24860-643: The cast; Fox did not want Weaver to return because they expected her to demand a high salary. Cameron and Hurd were insistent Weaver return as the solo star; Fox refused, saying they would damage the studio's negotiating power with Weaver's agent. Cameron and Hurd again left the project, marrying and going on a honeymoon. When they returned, the Aliens project was ready to move forward. Cameron credited Gordon with Aliens ' being greenlit . Weaver rejected initial offers to return and despite being interested after reading Cameron's script, she had to be convinced Aliens

25080-488: The character would annoy audiences until he realized he was comic relief for the tense scenes. Henriksen was concerned about portraying Bishop after other recent successful portrayals of android characters, such as Ian Holm in Alien and Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner (1982). He played Bishop as an innocent child who pities the short-lived humans. He suggested wearing distinctive contact lenses to convey when Bishop

25300-449: The clothing. A deleted scene in Alien established a life cycle for the alien creatures in which a lifeform would be cocooned and transformed into an egg that birthed a facehugger. Inspired by a beehive -like hierarchy, Cameron believed the vast field of eggs on the derelict alien craft would come from a much larger creature, the queen, with the other alien creatures serving as her drones. Winston described Cameron's initial queen design as

25520-402: The colony, apart from the main entrance used by the marines, was constructed in scale miniature form. The set was about 80-foot (24 m) long to accommodate the sixth-scale APC replica. The set was so large it had to be laid out diagonally across the stage, and forced perspective was used to add in buildings that would otherwise not fit. Cobb used a stylized design for the colony, resembling

25740-544: The condition that they exterminate the creatures. Ripley is introduced to the Colonial Marines on the spaceship Sulaco but is distrustful of their android , Bishop , because the android aboard the Nostromo had betrayed its crew to protect the alien on company orders. A dropship delivers the expedition to the surface of LV-426, where they find the battle-ravaged colony and two live alien facehuggers in containment tanks, but no bodies or colonists, except for

25960-498: The creatures. Ripley brings Hicks to Bishop in the second dropship, but she refuses to abandon Newt and arms herself before descending into the processing station hive alone to rescue her. During their escape, they encounter the alien queen surrounded by dozens of eggs, and when one begins to open, Ripley uses her weapons to destroy them all and the queen's ovipositor . Pursued by the enraged queen, Ripley and Newt join Bishop and Hicks on

26180-424: The creatures. She accuses Burke of releasing the facehuggers to implant her and Newt with alien embryos, allowing him to smuggle them through Earth's quarantine. The power is suddenly cut, and aliens attack through the ceiling. In the ensuing firefight, the aliens kill Burke, subdue Hudson, and injure Hicks; the cornered Gorman and Vasquez sacrifice themselves to avoid capture. Newt is separated from Ripley and taken by

26400-421: The crew. The situation was exacerbated by Cameron's hands-on approach, often modifying setups such as lighting himself to fit his vision without involving the unionized crew. The crew was dismissive of Cameron for his relative inexperience, thinking he had not done enough to earn such a prominent position, and that Hurd had her job only because she was his partner. Cinematographer Dick Bush insisted on lighting

26620-405: The disadvantage of producing more, and higher-energy, neutrons. The neutron from the second branch of the D-D reaction has an energy of only 2.45 MeV (0.393 pJ), while the neutron from the D-T reaction has an energy of 14.1 MeV (2.26 pJ), resulting in greater isotope production and material damage. When the tritons are removed quickly while allowing the He to react, the fuel cycle

26840-826: The dropship and escape moments before the station explodes, consuming the colony in a nuclear blast. Aboard the Sulaco , the group is ambushed by the queen, who stowed away in the dropship's landing gear. The queen tears Bishop in half and advances on Newt, but Ripley fights the creature with an exosuit cargo loader and expels it through an airlock into space while the damaged Bishop keeps Newt safe. Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and Bishop then enter hypersleep for their return trip to Earth. The Colonial Marine cast includes privates Vasquez ( Jenette Goldstein ), Drake ( Mark Rolston ), Spunkmeyer ( Daniel Kash ), Crowe ( Tip Tipping ), and Wierzbowski ( Trevor Steedman ), and corporals Dietrich (Cynthia Dale Scott) and Ferro ( Colette Hiller ). In addition to

27060-407: The dropship to crash into the station. Almost out of ammunition and resources, the survivors barricade themselves inside the colony. Ripley discovers that Burke ordered the colonists to investigate the derelict spaceship containing the alien eggs, intending to profit by recovering them for biological weapon research. Before she can expose him, Bishop informs the group that the dropship crash damaged

27280-406: The early years of silent cinema , when Georges Méliès ' A Trip to the Moon (1902) employed trick photography effects. The next major example (first in feature-length in the genre) was the film Metropolis (1927). From the 1930s to the 1950s, the genre consisted mainly of low-budget B movies . After Stanley Kubrick 's landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the science fiction film genre

27500-448: The energy being lost to the environment. In order to generate usable energy, a system would have to produce more energy than it loses. Lawson assumed an energy balance , shown below. where: The rate of fusion, and thus P fusion , depends on the temperature and density of the plasma. The plasma loses energy through conduction and radiation . Conduction occurs when ions , electrons , or neutrals impact other substances, typically

27720-485: The field line and enters a region of higher field strength, the particles can be reflected. Several devices apply this effect. The most famous was the magnetic mirror machines, a series of devices built at LLNL from the 1960s to the 1980s. Other examples include magnetic bottles and Biconic cusp . Because the mirror machines were straight, they had some advantages over ring-shaped designs. The mirrors were easier to construct and maintain and direct conversion energy capture

27940-463: The film carries a profound message - that the evolution of a species toward technological perfection (in this case exemplified by the disappeared alien civilization called the "Krell") does not ensure the loss of primitive and dangerous urges. In the film, this part of the primitive mind manifests itself as monstrous destructive force emanating from the Freudian subconscious, or "Id". Some films blur

28160-441: The film, there were only 12 alien suits: simple black leotards covered in molded foam were used for faster-moving shots, and detailed models with articulated upper bodies and mouths for closeups. When the aliens were shot and destroyed, puppets were hung up and detonated. The aliens' acidic blood was a combination of titanium tetrachloride , cyclohexylamine , acetic acid and yellow dye. The facehugger design remained faithful to

28380-620: The film. Unused portions of Horner's Aliens score were repurposed for Die Hard (1988). Development of the special effects for Aliens began in May 1985, with John Richardson supervising a 40-person team at Stan Winston Studio . L.A. Effects Group created miniatures and optical effects. Cameron lacked contacts at the more established special effects studios and avoided using them because he believed his hands-on approach would not be welcomed. He also did not rehire many Alien crew members because he did not want to be restricted by their loyalties to

28600-612: The films were often well-photographed in colour ... and their dismal dialogue was delivered in well-designed and well-lit sets." With the Space Race between the USSR and the US going on, documentaries and illustrations of actual events, pioneers and technology were plenty. Any movie featuring realistic space travel was at risk of being obsolete at its time of release, rather fossil than fiction. There were relatively few science fiction films in

28820-487: The final two hours, 17 minutes cut of Aliens . Fox wanted the film to be under two hours so it could be shown more times per day in theaters, increasing its revenue potential. Fox production president Scott Rudin flew to England to ask Cameron and Hurd if they could cut another 12 minutes, but Cameron was concerned further cuts would make it nonsensical, and Rudin relented. James Horner met Cameron early in their careers, when they worked for director Roger Corman . Aliens

29040-432: The first film. Those who returned were often given a higher status (such as Crispian Sallis , Alien focus puller and Aliens set decorator). Cameron had enjoyed returning artist Ron Cobb 's work on Alien , and conceptual artist Syd Mead was recruited because Cameron was a fan of his work on films such as 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984). Mead designed the Sulaco , the marines' spaceship. He conceived it as

29260-440: The first science fiction film, and a film that used early trick photography to depict a spacecraft's journey to the Moon. Several early films merged the science fiction and horror genres. Examples of this are Frankenstein ( 1910 ), a film adaptation of Mary Shelley 's novel, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), based on the psychological tale by Robert Louis Stevenson . Taking a more adventurous tack, 20,000 Leagues Under

29480-418: The flamethrowers vaporized it, causing fire and heavy smoke. Goldstein struggled to breathe and, since improvisation was encouraged, Paxton thought she was acting until he also became breathless. The nuclear explosion of the colony in the finale was created by shining a light bulb through cotton. Reebok designer Taun Le was commissioned to design custom sneakers for Weaver to wear in the film. The only mandate

29700-412: The floor that activated a gear inside it, causing the appendages to move as it was pulled along. Several rubber facehuggers were made to be thrown or blown up. Manipulating the facehugger inside a water tank was also difficult as the tank had to be watertight, limiting the use of control cables. A method was developed that required fewer cables to move the facehugger around the tank; the tail was fitted with

29920-422: The franchise's scope with additions to the series' backstory and factions such as the Colonial Marines. It inspired a variety of merchandise, including video games, comic books and toys. It was followed by two sequels: Alien 3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997) and a prequel film, Alien: Romulus (2024). Ellen Ripley has been in stasis for 57 years aboard an escape shuttle after destroying her ship,

30140-427: The fuel cycle. As a source of power, nuclear fusion has a number of potential advantages compared to fission . These include reduced radioactivity in operation, little high-level nuclear waste , ample fuel supplies (assuming tritium breeding or some forms of aneutronic fuels ), and increased safety. However, the necessary combination of temperature, pressure, and duration has proven to be difficult to produce in

30360-410: The fusion energy is carried by neutrons. The tritium-suppressed D-D fusion requires an energy confinement that is 10 times longer compared to D-T and double the plasma temperature. A second-generation approach to controlled fusion power involves combining helium-3 ( He) and deuterium ( H): This reaction produces He and a high-energy proton. As with the p- B aneutronic fusion fuel cycle, most of

30580-885: The future as dark, dirty and chaotic, and depicted aliens and androids as hostile and dangerous. In contrast, Steven Spielberg 's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ( 1982 ), one of the most successful films of the 1980s, presented aliens as benign and friendly, a theme already present in Spielberg's own Close Encounters of the Third Kind . James Bond also entered the science fiction genre in 1979 with Moonraker . The big budget adaptations of Frank Herbert 's Dune and Alex Raymond 's Flash Gordon , as well as Peter Hyams 's sequel to 2001 , 2010: The Year We Make Contact (based on 2001 author Arthur C. Clarke 's sequel novel 2010: Odyssey Two ), were box office failures that dissuaded producers from investing in science fiction literary properties. Disney's Tron ( 1982 ) turned out to be

30800-421: The genre. In the monster films of the 1950s, the scientist often played a heroic role as the only person who could provide a technological fix for some impending doom. Reflecting the distrust of government that began in the 1960s in the United States, the brilliant but rebellious scientist became a common theme, often serving a Cassandra -like role during an impending disaster. Biotechnology (e.g., cloning )

31020-455: The greatest energy yield. The reaction with Li is exothermic , providing a small energy gain for the reactor. The reaction with Li is endothermic , but does not consume the neutron. Neutron multiplication reactions are required to replace the neutrons lost to absorption by other elements. Leading candidate neutron multiplication materials are beryllium and lead , but the Li reaction helps to keep

31240-406: The heat generated by the reactions to blow the fuel apart. Although NIF is also large, this is a function of its "driver" design, not inherent to the fusion process. Multiple approaches have been proposed to capture the energy that fusion produces. The simplest is to heat a fluid. The commonly targeted D-T reaction releases much of its energy as fast-moving neutrons. Electrically neutral, the neutron

31460-460: The heat generated in the barrel. A cast was made of Henn's upper body and her stunt double's legs to construct a lightweight dummy for Weaver to hold when carrying a gun; Henn's weight plus a gun would have been too heavy. Goldstein had never handled a gun, and held her weapon incorrectly in closeups, so Hurd stood in for her. The flamethrowers were functional. The art department had covered the sets in an unspecified substance to artificially age them;

31680-419: The horror of Alien with the action of The Terminator . According to Hill, Cameron said if the first film could be compared to a haunted attraction , Aliens should be like a roller coaster . Cameron believed in having a strong female heroine to distinguish his films from typical Hollywood action fare and wrote the script with a picture of Weaver on his desk. He referred to The Terminator , and how he removed

31900-464: The idea of reprogrammable reality and memory. The idea that a human could be entirely represented as a program in a computer was a core element of the film Tron . This would be further explored in the film version of The Lawnmower Man , Transcendence , and Ready Player One and the idea reversed in Virtuosity as computer programs sought to become real persons. In The Matrix series,

32120-401: The legs by adding a double joint to make it more inhuman. Cameron and Winston worked on several concepts to vivify the queen, including large puppets, miniatures, and costumes with several people inside. A frame was built large enough to hold two people, covered in black polythene bags, and hung on a crane. The prototype was a success, and Cameron wrote the alien-queen scene. The final alien queen

32340-399: The line between the genres, such as films where the protagonist gains the extraordinary powers of the superhero . These films usually employ quasi-plausible reason for the hero gaining these powers. Not all science fiction themes are equally suitable for movies. Science fiction horror is most common. Often enough, these films could just as well pass as Westerns or World War II films if

32560-467: The lower cost of filming in England. Filming was difficult as Cameron, a Canadian, had little familiarity with British film-industry traditions such as tea breaks , which interrupted production for up to an hour each weekday, and was frustrated at losing hours of filming every week. In his book The Making of Aliens , J. W. Rinzler described Cameron as aggressive and certain of what he wanted, which irked

32780-640: The main cast, Aliens features Paul Maxwell as Van Leuwen (a member of the board reviewing Ripley's competence) and Barbara Coles as the cocooned colonist killed when an alien bursts from her chest. Carl Toop and Eddie Powell portray alien warriors. Some scenes removed from Aliens ' s theatrical version were restored in subsequent releases. Additional credits for these scenes include Newt's father, Russ Jorden ( Jay Benedict ), and her mother Anne (Holly de Jong). Henn's brother, Christopher, plays her brother Timmy, Mac McDonald portrays colony administrator Al Simpson, and Weaver's mother, Elizabeth Inglis , makes

33000-453: The most common fuel is hydrogen , and gravity provides extremely long confinement times that reach the conditions needed for fusion energy production. Proposed fusion reactors generally use heavy hydrogen isotopes such as deuterium and tritium (and especially a mixture of the two ), which react more easily than protium (the most common hydrogen isotope ) and produce a helium nucleus and an energized neutron , to allow them to reach

33220-546: The most reactive aneutronic fuel is He. However, obtaining reasonable quantities of He implies large scale extraterrestrial mining on the Moon or in the atmosphere of Uranus or Saturn. Therefore, the most promising candidate fuel for such fusion is fusing the readily available protium (i.e. a proton ) and boron . Their fusion releases no neutrons, but produces energetic charged alpha (helium) particles whose energy can directly be converted to electrical power: Side reactions are likely to yield neutrons that carry only about 0.1% of

33440-458: The much higher-budget Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Science fiction films are often speculative in nature, and often include key supporting elements of science and technology. However, as often as not the "science" in a Hollywood science fiction movie can be considered pseudo-science, relying primarily on atmosphere and quasi-scientific artistic fancy than facts and conventional scientific theory. The definition can also vary depending on

33660-415: The neutron population high. Natural lithium is mainly Li, which has a low tritium production cross section compared to Li so most reactor designs use breeding blankets with enriched Li. Drawbacks commonly attributed to D-T fusion power include: The neutron flux expected in a commercial D-T fusion reactor is about 100 times that of fission power reactors, posing problems for material design . After

33880-574: The normal protective forces from Sarah Connor so she had to fend for herself. Cameron had also always wanted to make a film about space infantry . The final script was well received, but Fox executives (including chairman Barry Diller ) were concerned about the budget. Fox estimated the cost as close to $ 35   million, but Hurd said it would be closer to $ 15.5   million. Diller offered $ 12   million, prompting Cameron and Hurd to quit. Gordon negotiated with Diller until he relented, and Cameron and Hurd returned. In April 1985, conflict turned to

34100-496: The number of sleeping pods and add a power loader. Cobb designed the dropship, the armored personnel carrier (APC), and exteriors of the colony and its vehicles. The Sulaco ' s dropship was designed to be life-size, for use on the Sulaco set, but a smaller replica was used for some shots. The APC was a disguised pushback tug for a Boeing 747 . The derelict alien spacecraft used in Aliens had been in historian Bob Burns III 's driveway since its appearance in Alien . Most of

34320-518: The number-one film of its third weekend with a gross of $ 7.1   million, ahead of the debuts of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives ($ 6.8   million) and the Howard the Duck ($ 5.1   million). The film fell to third place in its fifth weekend with a gross of $ 4.30   million, behind the debuts of The Fly ($ 7   million) and Armed and Dangerous ($ 4.33   million). Aliens

34540-412: The original Alien design, but the overall appearance was made to appear more organic, and its eight legs were made more finger-like, enhancing the detail on the knuckles and adding fingernails. Unlike in Alien , which only involved one substantial jumping scene, the facehugger models used in Aliens featured full articulation for their tongue, legs, and tail, allowing for more action set pieces. The tail

34760-400: The other actors (Weaver, Reiser, and Hope) as outsiders. Biehn's late casting caused him to miss the training, and he said he regretted being unable to customize his armor like the other actors (since he inherited Remar's). Cameron created a distinct backstory for each marine and instructed the actors to read Starship Troopers so they would understand the space marine archetype. Vasquez

34980-574: The outer portions of the reactor from the neutron flux. Newer designs, the advanced tokamak in particular, use lithium inside the reactor core as a design element. The plasma interacts directly with the lithium, preventing a problem known as "recycling". The advantage of this design was demonstrated in the Lithium Tokamak Experiment . Fusing two deuterium nuclei is the second easiest fusion reaction. The reaction has two branches that occur with nearly equal probability: This reaction

35200-432: The power plant's cooling system, and the plant will soon overheat and explode, destroying the colony. He volunteers to travel to the colony transmitter and remotely pilot the Sulaco 's remaining dropship to the surface. After falling asleep in the medical laboratory, Ripley and Newt awaken to find themselves trapped with the two released facehuggers. Ripley triggers a fire alarm to alert the Marines, who rescue them and kill

35420-453: The power, which means that neutron scattering is not used for energy transfer and material activation is reduced several thousand-fold. The optimum temperature for this reaction of 123 keV is nearly ten times higher than that for pure hydrogen reactions, and energy confinement must be 500 times better than that required for the D-T reaction. In addition, the power density is 2500 times lower than for D-T, although per unit mass of fuel, this

35640-420: The process. If they miss the inner cage they can collide and fuse. Ions typically hit the cathode, however, creating prohibitory high conduction losses. Fusion rates in fusors are low because of competing physical effects, such as energy loss in the form of light radiation. Designs have been proposed to avoid the problems associated with the cage, by generating the field using a non-neutral cloud. These include

35860-439: The production, and that any member of the crew who could not support it should volunteer to be replaced. The crew agreed to support Cameron if he supported their scheduled working hours. The relationship between filmmakers and crew remained cool; when filming concluded at Pinewood, Cameron told the crew: "This has been a long and difficult shoot, fraught by many problems   ... but the one thing that kept me going, through it all,

36080-447: The protium–boron-11 reaction, because it does not directly produce neutrons, although side reactions can. The easiest nuclear reaction, at the lowest energy, is D+T: This reaction is common in research, industrial and military applications, usually as a neutron source. Deuterium is a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen and is commonly available. The large mass ratio of the hydrogen isotopes makes their separation easy compared to

36300-400: The queen and power loader was extensively choreographed, as Weaver risked serious injury battling a large, unwieldy animatronic. The camera was sometimes moved to simulate subjects moving faster. The scene of the queen running at Ripley was one of the more difficult shots; the wires and rods had to be concealed, since they could not be removed in post-production. Miniatures were used for parts of

36520-448: The reaction energy is released as charged particles, reducing activation of the reactor housing and potentially allowing more efficient energy harvesting (via any of several pathways). In practice, D-D side reactions produce a significant number of neutrons, leaving p- B as the preferred cycle for aneutronic fusion. Both material science problems and non-proliferation concerns are greatly diminished by aneutronic fusion . Theoretically,

36740-473: The release of Transformers (2007) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), both of which resulted in worldwide box office success. In 2009, James Cameron 's Avatar garnered worldwide box office success, and would later become the highest-grossing movie of all time. This movie was also an example of political commentary. It depicted humans destroying the environment on another planet by mining for

36960-586: The repetitions of the Korova Milkbar make the alien decor seem more familiar. As well, familiar images become alien, as in the films Repo Man and Liquid Sky . For example, in Dr. Strangelove , the distortion of the humans make the familiar images seem more alien. Finally, alien images are juxtaposed with the familiar, as in The Deadly Mantis , when a giant praying mantis is shown climbing

37180-401: The scene with go motion , a version of stop motion with motion blur added. The 1986 summer film season began in mid-May. The season had been starting earlier each year as studios attempted to beat each other with their biggest films. Fifty-five films were scheduled for release between May and September, including the action drama Top Gun and the comedic Sweet Liberty , but the season

37400-403: The science fiction film". In the 1950s, public interest in space travel and new technologies was great. While many 1950s science fiction films were low-budget B movies , there were several successful films with larger budgets and impressive special effects. These include The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The Thing from Another World (1951), When Worlds Collide (1951), The War of

37620-429: The science fiction props were removed. Common motifs also include voyages and expeditions to other planets, and dystopias , while utopias are rare. Film theorist Vivian Sobchack argues that science fiction films differ from fantasy films in that while science fiction film seeks to achieve our belief in the images we are viewing, fantasy film instead attempts to suspend our disbelief. The science fiction film displays

37840-463: The scientist has varied considerably in the science fiction film genre, depending on the public perception of science and advanced technology. Starting with Dr. Frankenstein , the mad scientist became a stock character who posed a dire threat to society and perhaps even civilization. Certain portrayals of the "mad scientist", such as Peter Sellers 's performance in Dr. Strangelove , have become iconic to

38060-586: The score at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra . His schedule was so tight that the music for the climactic battle between Ripley and the queen was written overnight. Cameron first heard the score while it was being recorded by the orchestra and did not like it, but it was too late to make changes. Brad Fiedel 's synth-inspired tracks for The Terminator had allowed changes to be made quickly based on feedback, but Cameron had no experience managing orchestral music. Cameron cut

38280-434: The score up, using pieces where he believed they fit best, and inserted pieces of Jerry Goldsmith 's Alien score and hired unknown composers to fill gaps. The director said in a later interview he thought the music was good, but did not fit the scenes he had filmed. Horner's "alien sting " sound was initially used only once, during the scene with the cocooned woman, as Cameron disliked it, but he eventually used it throughout

38500-414: The sets were left in place until Tim Burton redressed the sets into interiors for Axis Chemicals during the filming of his 1989 film Batman . While filming the dropship descent from the Sulaco , shaking collapsed the set roof onto the cast and crew. Most of the cast were unharmed, but a large piece of debris hit Cameron in the head. Because of the tight budget, Hurd made Cameron pay for an early scene of

38720-437: The side of empiricism, and happy films and sad films on the side of transcendentalism. However, there are numerous well-known examples of science fiction horror films, epitomized by such pictures as Frankenstein and Alien . The visual style of science fiction film is characterized by a clash between alien and familiar images. This clash is implemented when alien images become familiar, as in A Clockwork Orange , when

38940-500: The sixties and seventies including A Clockwork Orange and The Manchurian Candidate coincided with secret real-life government experimentation during Project MKULTRA . Voluntary erasure of memory is further explored as themes of the films Paycheck and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind . Some films like Limitless explore the concept of mind enhancement. The anime series Serial Experiments Lain also explores

39160-456: The smart-gun rig was difficult, the actors kept them on when not filming. The pulse rifle was made from a Thompson submachine gun and a Franchi SPAS-12 pump-action shotgun in a futuristic shell. Weaver was opposed to weapons in general, but Cameron explained weapons were secondary to the core narrative of Ripley bonding with and protecting Newt. Weaver found using the weapons strange and difficult, due to their weight and her concern about pulling

39380-639: The spheromak, attempt to combine the advantages of toroidal magnetic surfaces with those of a simply connected (non-toroidal) machine, resulting in a mechanically simpler and smaller confinement area. Inertial confinement is the use of rapid implosion to heat and confine plasma. A shell surrounding the fuel is imploded using a direct laser blast (direct drive), a secondary x-ray blast (indirect drive), or heavy beams. The fuel must be compressed to about 30 times solid density with energetic beams. Direct drive can in principle be efficient, but insufficient uniformity has prevented success. Indirect drive uses beams to heat

39600-407: The stellarator. Fusion reactions occur when two or more atomic nuclei come close enough for long enough that the nuclear force pulling them together exceeds the electrostatic force pushing them apart, fusing them into heavier nuclei. For nuclei heavier than iron-56 , the reaction is endothermic , requiring an input of energy. The heavy nuclei bigger than iron have many more protons resulting in

39820-457: The strong force, which has a range of roughly one femtometer —the diameter of a proton or neutron. The fuel atoms must be supplied enough kinetic energy to approach one another closely enough for the strong force to overcome the electrostatic repulsion in order to initiate fusion. The " Coulomb barrier " is the quantity of kinetic energy required to move the fuel atoms near enough. Atoms can be heated to extremely high temperatures or accelerated in

40040-473: The studio , minus the theaters' share, was $ 42.5   million. Box office figures outside the U.S. and Canada are inconsistent and not available for all 1986 films. According to the box-office tracking websites Box Office Mojo and the Numbers , Aliens earned from $ 45.9   million to $ 98.1   million. This gives Aliens a worldwide gross of $ 131.1   million to $ 183.3   million, making it

40260-400: The tight schedule remaining, and the actress thought she had messed it up. Paxton believed he was not good at improvisation and discussed ideas with Cameron before filming. Hudson's signature line "Game over, man; game over!" originated from Paxton developing a backstory for the character, in which he was trained on simulators. Henn found it hard to act afraid of the aliens (since she was fond of

40480-640: The title monster attacking Tokyo, gained immense popularity, spawned multiple sequels, led to other kaiju films like Rodan , and created one of the most recognizable monsters in cinema history. Japanese science fiction films, particularly the tokusatsu and kaiju genres, were known for their extensive use of special effects , and gained worldwide popularity in the 1950s. Kaiju and tokusatsu films, notably Warning from Space (1956), sparked Stanley Kubrick 's interest in science fiction films and influenced 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). According to his biographer John Baxter , despite their "clumsy model sequences,

40700-649: The transmission of sound or maneuvers employing wings, yet the soundtrack is filled with inappropriate flying noises and changes in flight path resembling an aircraft banking. The filmmakers, unfamiliar with the specifics of space travel , focus instead on providing acoustical atmosphere and the more familiar maneuvers of the aircraft. Similar instances of ignoring science in favor of art can be seen when movies present environmental effects as portrayed in Star Wars and Star Trek . Entire planets are destroyed in titanic explosions requiring mere seconds, whereas an actual event of this nature takes many hours. The role of

40920-460: The two best human Jeopardy (game show) players in 2011 and a NOVA documentary film, Smartest Machine on Earth , was released in the same year. Building-size robots are also becoming a popular theme in movies as featured in Pacific Rim . Future live action films may include an adaptation of popular television series like Voltron and Robotech . The CGI robots of Pacific Rim and

41140-535: The unfamiliar and alien in the context of the familiar. Despite the alien nature of the scenes and science fictional elements of the setting, the imagery of the film is related back to humankind and how we relate to our surroundings. While the science fiction film strives to push the boundaries of the human experience, they remain bound to the conditions and understanding of the audience and thereby contain prosaic aspects, rather than being completely alien or abstract. Genre films such as westerns or war movies are bound to

41360-444: The viewpoint of the observer. Many science fiction films include elements of mysticism, occult , magic, or the supernatural , considered by some to be more properly elements of fantasy or the occult (or religious) film. This transforms the movie genre into a science fantasy with a religious or quasi-religious philosophy serving as the driving motivation. The movie Forbidden Planet employs many common science fiction elements, but

41580-419: The wrong trigger. Automated sentry guns were also constructed for Aliens , although they do not appear in the theatrical cut. Real machine guns were positioned atop remote-controlled hydraulic tripods that allowed them to pivot horizontally or vertically. The guns were capable of firing up to 600 wooden-blank rounds per minute that were shattered into small splinters by baffles in the muzzle and incinerated by

41800-454: The year's fourth-highest-grossing film, behind Platoon ($ 138   million), Crocodile Dundee ($ 328.2   million), and Top Gun ($ 356.8   million), or the third-highest-grossing film behind Crocodile Dundee and Top Gun . According to Fox's 1992 estimate, Aliens had earned $ 157   million worldwide. The New York Times described the film as "extremely successful." Science fiction film The genre has existed since

42020-533: Was Daniel Kash's (Spunkmeyer) debut film role. He offered Cameron his coat if he got the part and also auditioned for Hudson. The actors stayed at the Holiday Inn in Langley, Berkshire , during filming. Paxton described the actors' time outside work positively: "God, we had the best time   ... We all hung very hard together. That's where I first met [Henriksen], who I fell in love with. [Matthews]   ...

42240-418: Was Goldstein's first feature-film role. She credited her physique to spending hours at the gym while unemployed, gaining 10 pounds (4.5 kg) at Cameron's request. Goldstein wore dark contact lenses and underwent an hour of makeup to cover her freckles and darken her white skin to portray a " Chicano " character; she studied Mexican-American gang interviews to develop her demeanor and accent. Ricco Ross (Frost)

42460-528: Was Horner and Cameron's first collaboration; Horner called it a "nightmare". He arrived in London to compose, expecting a six-week schedule. There was nothing for him to score, as Cameron was still filming and editing, and Horner had only three weeks to compose. The producers were unwilling to give him any more time, and he was booked to begin scoring The Name of the Rose (1986) shortly afterwards. Horner recorded

42680-475: Was a 14-foot (4.3 m) puppet made of lightweight polyurethane foam. Two people sat inside to control the arms; the legs were controlled by rods connected at the ankles, and a separate person whipped the tail around with fishing line. The head was manipulated with a combination of servomotors and hydraulics controlled by up to four people. The effect was hidden by lighting, steam, slime, and smoke. The Stan Winston Studio had not used hydraulics and considered them

42900-594: Was a really good spirit to have around, with a great voice. And all these hilarious British characters, like [Steedman], the stuntman, who used to grab my bicep and go, 'Blimey, more meat on a cat's cock! ' " Principal photography began in September 1985, on a 75-day schedule, and an $ 18.5   million budget, not including film prints and marketing. Filming took place mainly at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire near London , because of its large sets and

43120-432: Was alerted to danger, but Cameron believed they would make the character appear more frightening than the aliens. Biehn, Paxton, and Henriksen had worked with Cameron on The Terminator . Aliens was Reiser's first major theatrical role, following small parts in films like Beverly Hills Cop (1984). The Colonial Marines cast features a mix of British and American actors who underwent three weeks of intensive training with

43340-400: Was also lengthened about 6 in (15 cm) to give it more functions such as a whip-like action. Nine operators were required for the fully articulated facehugger; other less-detailed variants were used for simple actions such as scurrying across the floor. The design team struggled with making it scuttle believably while moving the appendages; they eventually developing a control wire along

43560-450: Was anticipated to become the summer's top film, surpassing The Karate Kid Part II , Back to School , and Top Gun . The Los Angeles Times reported long lines to see Aliens , even on weekday afternoons. The film retained the number-one position in its second weekend with an additional gross of $ 8.6   million, ahead of the debuting Heartburn ($ 5.8   million) and The Karate Kid Part II ($ 5   million). Aliens remained

43780-413: Was articulated with hydraulics and cables to control the queen's mouth and lips. To create the effect of the queen piercing Bishop's chest with her tail, Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis constructed a chestplate for Henriksen with a rubber segment of the queen's tail flattened against it. The tail was pulled forward by wire, apparently exploding through Bishop's torso. A rigid piece of tail, attached to

44000-464: Was at school in Lakenheath , England, and though she lacked acting experience, Cameron said she had a "great face and expressive eyes". Stephen Lang auditioned for the role of Hicks, but James Remar secured the role on the recommendation of Hill, his close friend. Remar left shortly into filming, ostensibly due to urgent family matters or creative differences with Cameron, but he later admitted he

44220-430: Was cast as Hudson before Cameron and Hurd decided to take the character in a different direction. Cynthia Dale Scott (Dietrich) was an aspiring singer when she was cast. Colette Hiller (Ferro) was upset she had to cut her hair short for the role because she was getting married shortly afterward, and made the filmmakers buy her a long, blonde wig. Trevor Steedman (Wierzbowski) was a stuntman rather than an actor, and Aliens

44440-453: Was committed to Full Metal Jacket (1987), whose filming schedule overlapped for a week with Aliens ' . Although Cameron offered to let Ross join the filming later, Ross was concerned that Stanley Kubrick 's projects often overran, and opted for Aliens instead. Rolston misled the filmmakers to get his part; he had finished filming Revolution (1985), and implied he was its most prominent actor after Al Pacino . William Hope (Gorman)

44660-471: Was completed (although it was later continued, but at the time it was not intended to be) with the darkly themed Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith . Science-fiction also returned as a tool for political commentary in films such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence , Minority Report , Sunshine , District 9 , Children of Men , Serenity , Sleep Dealer , and Pandorum . The 2000s also saw

44880-800: Was developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the 1980s as a method to maintain a voltage directly using fusion reaction products. This has demonstrated energy capture efficiency of 48 percent. Plasma is an ionized gas that conducts electricity. In bulk, it is modeled using magnetohydrodynamics , which is a combination of the Navier–Stokes equations governing fluids and Maxwell's equations governing how magnetic and electric fields behave. Fusion exploits several plasma properties, including: Many approaches, equipment, and mechanisms are employed across multiple projects to address fusion heating, measurement, and power production. A deep reinforcement learning system has been used to control

45100-417: Was easier to implement. Poor confinement has led this approach to be abandoned, except in the polywell design. Magnetic loops bend the field lines back on themselves, either in circles or more commonly in nested toroidal surfaces. The most highly developed systems of this type are the tokamak , the stellarator, and the reversed field pinch. Compact toroids , especially the field-reversed configuration and

45320-460: Was fired after being arrested for drug possession. Hurd hired Michael Biehn the following Friday. Paxton credited his casting as Hudson to a chance encounter with Cameron at Los Angeles International Airport , during which he mentioned he would be interested in a role. Fox supported Paxton's casting because of positive feedback for his performance in Weird Science (1985). Paxton was worried

45540-456: Was hired to write a story for Aliens in 1983 on the strength of his scripts for The Terminator (1984) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). The project stalled again until new Fox executive Lawrence Gordon pursued a sequel. On an approximately $ 18.5   million budget, Aliens began principal photography in September 1985 and concluded in January 1986. The film's development was tumultuous and rife with conflicts between Cameron and

45760-420: Was milk, and after several days of filming, it was sour and foul-smelling. John Richardson designed the mechanical power loader exosuit, with input from Mead. As with the queen, a prototype was built out of wood and polythene bags stuffed with newspaper to see how the movement would work. The finished design was so cumbersome that stuntman John Lees, in a black skinsuit, operated it from behind. The battle between

45980-454: Was never offered the chance to direct the sequel, possibly because he was difficult to work with on the original. The title Aliens reportedly came from Cameron writing "Alien" on a whiteboard during a pitch meeting and adding a "$ " suffix. Cameron also wanted his collaborative partner and girlfriend, Gale Anne Hurd , to serve as the producer, but Fox did not take the request seriously, believing she could not stand up to Cameron, who believed she

46200-668: Was not as concerned with the warrior aliens because they were on screen only briefly. In redesigning the alien warriors, Cameron remained faithful to Giger's work while building on it. Conscious that the creatures would be seen by audiences as people in costumes, he enhanced the designs by extending their arms and often filmed them hung from wires or from atypical positions to make them appear more inhuman. The aliens were played by dancers and stuntmen in lightweight costumes that allowed them to move quickly. Several 8-foot (2.4 m) mannequins were used for aliens that were contorted into inhuman poses. Although hordes of alien creatures appear to be in

46420-514: Was not being made exclusively for financial reasons. Weaver received a $ 1   million (equivalent to $ 2.78 million in 2023) salary and a percentage of the box-office profits, the highest salary of her career at the time. Negotiations were so lengthy that Cameron and Hurd told Schwarzenegger's agent they intended to write Ripley out of the movie (knowing Weaver's agent would be told); terms were reached shortly afterward. Cameron wanted an unknown actor to portray Newt. Agents scouted Henn while she

46640-667: Was not expected to break financial records due to fewer sequels, anticipated blockbusters , and films by Steven Spielberg or starring popular comedians that had dominated the earlier half of the decade. Some industry experts also blamed the burgeoning home-video market, which had grown from 7   million rentals in 1983 to 58   million by 1985. Films expected to do well were aimed at younger audiences and featured comedy or horror, such as Back to School , Ferris Bueller's Day Off , and SpaceCamp . Some films targeted at adults were also seen as potential successes, including Legal Eagles , Ruthless People , and Cobra . Aliens

46860-568: Was one of the top ten highest-grossing films for 11 weeks. By the end of its theatrical run, Aliens had grossed about $ 85.1   million. This figure made it the year's seventh highest-grossing film , behind Back to School ($ 91.3   million), science-fiction film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ($ 109.6   million), The Karate Kid Part II ($ 115.1   million), war film Platoon (138.5   million), action comedy Crocodile Dundee ($ 174.8   million) and Top Gun ($ 176.8   million). Aliens ' box-office returns to

47080-399: Was seen by industry professionals as a potential sleeper hit based on positive industry word-of-mouth during filming, enthusiastic industry screenings, and favorable pre-release reviews. The film's success was considered dependent on its ability to attract audiences outside the young males and blue-collar workers typical for the genre. The tagline was, "This time, it's war". Aliens began

47300-663: Was taken more seriously. In the late 1970s, big-budget science fiction films filled with special effects became popular with audiences after the success of Star Wars (1977) and paved the way for the blockbuster hits of subsequent decades. Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies science fiction films as one of eleven super-genres in his screenwriters’ taxonomy , stating that all feature-length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres.  The other ten super-genres are action , crime , fantasy , horror , romance , slice of life , sports , thriller , war , and western . According to Vivian Sobchack ,

47520-459: Was that they be laceless so one could easily slide off of Weaver's foot during the finale. H. R. Giger , who designed the alien creature, was reportedly disappointed that he could not be involved in Aliens . According to Hurd, Giger was contractually obligated to Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) and Fox was not allowed to negotiate with him. Giger was replaced by special-effects creator Stan Winston . Cameron also contributed to designs but

47740-504: Was the certain knowledge that one day I would drive out the gate of Pinewood and never come back, and that you sorry bastards would still be here". He described most of the crew as "lazy, insolent, and arrogant". Paxton called the crew's work impeccable, but their attitude more relaxed than the American crews to which he was accustomed. The power plant and alien nest were filmed in the decommissioned Acton Lane Power Station in London, and

47960-490: Was the only person who would. Hurd had several industry associates contact Fox executives to convince them she was a legitimate producer. Cameron turned in the finished script in February 1985, hours before a Hollywood writer's strike . Cameron recalled the audience reactions while seeing Alien in the theater and believed it would be difficult to recreate the emotion and novelty of the original. He and Hurd agreed to combine

48180-455: Was used to produce more complicated effects. It also enabled filmmakers to enhance the visual quality of animation, resulting in films such as Ghost in the Shell (1995) from Japan, and The Iron Giant (1999) from the United States. During the first decade of the 2000s, superhero films abounded, as did earthbound science fiction such as the Matrix trilogy. In 2005 , the Star Wars saga

48400-534: Was very different from the original film, falling more into the action/science fiction genre, it was both a critical and commercial success and Sigourney Weaver was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Academy Awards . The Japanese cyberpunk anime film Akira ( 1988 ) also had a big influence outside Japan when released. In the 1990s, the emergence of the World Wide Web and

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