Seven years had passed since New Line Cinema went from a sleepy B movie studio to a growing mid-major overnight with the release of
Xenomorph. The success of the original film earned them the nickname "The House that Ellen Ripley Built." A sequel had been in development hell in the ensuing years, until founder Bob Shaye appointed Lawrence Gordon, the one-time mentor of Joel Silver, as head of production. Instead of the expected title
Xenomorph II, James Cameron went with a pluralized
Xenomorphs for his screenplay. Production took place at Pinewood Studios on a budget of $17.5 million USD. Cameron would have a difficult time during filming, as many crew members still pledged loyalty to Dan O'Bannon, who directed the original. Screenings of the
Terminator were not enough to get the crew on Cameron's side, and his undying perfectionism wasn't very much help either.
Veronica Cartwright returns as Ellen Ripley. This time, she awakens almost 60 years after the events of the first film. And worst of all, we learn that Ripley had a daughter who passed away while her mother was still in hypersleep.
RIPLEY: "I promised her, that I would be home for her birthday. Her eleventh birthday." (sobs)
Now, Ripley must lead a company of Colonial Marines to LV-426 to investigate an alien disturbance at a terraforming colony known as Hadley's Hope. Instead of seeing the Marines get decimated so quickly like in the OTL film, Pvt Mark Drake (Mark Rolston), Cpl Collette Ferro (Collette Hiller), Pvt Willie Hudson (Bill Paxton), Sgt Al Apone (Al Matthews) and Pvt Jenette Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) are given more screen time for the audience to get to know them a little better. From those five, only Drake joins Ripley, Cpl Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn), Rebecca "Newt" Jorden (Carrie Henn) and the android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) for the final escape from the planet.
With Carlo Rambaldi committed to other projects, the studio called upon Stan Winston to construct the villainous Xenomorph Queen for the final battle in the film. Additionally, Winston had a hand in designing the costumes of the Xenomorph warriors. To create the visual effects for the film, James Cameron enlisted the Skotak brothers, with whom Cameron had worked previously on several projects at Grand Diamond, like
Battle Beyond the Stars and
Galaxy of Terror.
Released on July 18, 1986,
Xenomorphs made enough of a sizeable profit to convince New Line Cinema to pursue a third
Xenomorph adventure.
And one more thing, Xenomorphs saw the debut of a new logo for New Line...