So Ripley was responsible for the marines dying?
She was the one who suggested to Gorman that he take away their weapons. If she hadn't of said anything more marines might have survived.
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MovieChat Forums > Aliens (1986) Discussion > So Ripley was responsible for the marine...
Weyland-Yutani and Gorman are responsible. They are the ones who sent the miners and settlers to the derelict engineer ship.
shareNo, Gorman is responsible and so is Burke.
It shouldn't take what is a civilian to point out the terrain to an officer that is supposed to be briefed already on what to expect, discharging weapons and the effects should already have been discussed and dealt with.
She just pointed out that the reactor was near where they were going. Gorman made the decision to keep going without their guns.
shareBut they did have weapos after all. And just like riply warned they blew the heat exchangers and a meltdown happened.
sharePretty much the ONLY thing I've always disliked about Aliens is the absolutely cliché of having the officer in charge be an indecisive POS. To be fair, they could have taken it further and ALSO have Lt. Gorman be a coward, but thankfully Carpenter did not double-down on that over-used plot device.
The result of the processing center being so damaged by the fire fight as to go critical was predictable. Same for the marines going against orders and keeping and using lethal rounds once the $hit hit the fan. Gorman, had he survived, would have been responsible. Had they not been able to live fire, even more and perhaps all of the marines would have died or been abducted, but they processing center likely would not have been as damaged.
What really screwed the platoon was their dropship not being sealed while grounded. Better yet, it should have been on an auto-pilot slow loop over the camp, but at that point, probably not justified.
The thing that gets me with the drop ship was how they didn't bother to have it in a secured area AND that the ramp wasn't guarded. Ignoring the slime isn't even the issue, it was likely too late at that point. But the fact the xenomorph had an opportunity to slip in unnoticed is my issue. As you previously said, ot should have been secured. But cant imagine that marines would be THAT careless to not guard the dropship and to put themselves in danger because Spunkmeyer wanted a smoke break.
shareIt was Gorman who declared "the area is secure," prematurely, against Ripley's advice. The grunts just took him at his word.
Spunkmeyer's failure to recognize the slime also hearkens back to incomplete briefing, possibly also Gorman's fault.
Last point, I'm pretty sure Bishop blamed the reactor damage on the drop ship crash, not their small arms fire.
Bottom line, it's all believable incompetence to me, since it all tracks back to the rookie commander. It also makes Gorman's final acts (going back for Vasquez alone & self-destructing) more poignant, as we see the kind of soldier he could've been.
I am not sure what point you are trying to make. As marines they should have been properly guarding the drop ship no matter how secure.
shareOh ... forgot to mention, Cameron himself admits being mistaken in calling them "marines."
He'd based the characters on Vietnam-era army infantry, because "marines" worthy of that title would never be that lax and careless.
So you're correct that they SHOULD have been guarding the drop ship, but their carelessness made sense within the narrative. At least to me.
It was Gorman who declared "the area is secure," prematurely, against Ripley's advice.
I', not saying he wasnt premature , but ..
Ripley's not a soldier - she doesent know what counts as "secure" in terms of the landing part of the operation.
It turns out it was secure - the trouble only started when they went over to the atmospere processor.
Hmmm, upon thinking about it, I do find it a little weird that no one in the unit, especially Burke, realized that firing rounds in the Atmosphere Processor could result in adios muchachos, BEFORE they actually went into the atmosphere processor. It was all so last minute when Ripley realized what could happen, even with Burke taking so much pride in Weyland-Yutani's facility.
Oh well, Cameron needed a way for a good chunk of the highly trained ombres to perish early on in the film, and taking away the guns seemed like the most plausible way to do it.
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Really it’s just shitty writing. There were plenty of other ways to kill off the marines and have the drop ship crash other than sheer incompetence.
In my own little avp script I had the drop ship airborne circling the base during the first battle with the the Xenos. When the marines call it for evac it gets shot down by a Predator. I know there’s no preds in Aliens but my point is come up with something other than your characters being incompetent/careless
It's simple to explain none of them took it serious and when they was on the ship all joking around Gorman stated you can read Ripley report which i bet only a few read it the others if they didn't thought it was as stated another bug hunt.
The mission was all about getting a specimen so the likes of Gorman was selected by the company to be puppets with Burker their to control what was going on but wouldn't be responsible which is why it was claimed to be military so they would be at blame for the mess up which the company knew would happen they didn't care about any of those people.
Now some would say but why take Ripley simple they wanted her gone as well and with her present they could spin another story about her just like they did blaming her for blowing the ship before.
regarding the weapons comes down to again not taking mission serious and adds to the film if all films always stuck to realism they would be very boring