Aliens - 1986 movie (was Dog Soldiers)

[Webstral]

But when you've got a squad of Marines to kill off in about a hour and a half film you use these stereotypes to quickly familiarize your audience with the paper thin characters without having to spend much background on them.

The audience goes, "oh there is the grizzled NCO... i don't need more explanation on him... lets see... ahh yes the green second LT... i bet that is going to be trouble."

Good stuff. The expectations of the audience are powerful tools for story-telling. In many ways, writing a screenplay or a novel is rather like conducting a military operation. There list of things that probably ought to be accomplished is much, much longer than the list of things that can be resourced. In a film with as many characters as "Aliens", there isn't time to develop all of the characters, all of the themes, and so forth. At the risk of using the US Joint Chiefs from the Second World War as literary critics, the term "economy of effort" can be applied to even so grand a film as "Aliens".

Webstral

[Webstral]

This is all a buncha bullshit drama.

These forums are so tame that we take our ball and go home as well fall all over ourselves apologizing to each other for the hint of a perceived slight.

So everyone .... grow up. and don't take everything so personal. It's the internet.

It's true that this site is on the Internet. It's also a private club, owned and operated by Kato. If you have been here for a while, then you know that the long-term users are here because we've been turned off by the crude, low-brow combativeness we've found in so many other locations. At the risk of speaking out of turn for my compatriots, we don't want just another Internet site. We're here because we like this one, and I doubt many of us feel the site will be improved by importing the name-calling, smack-talking bombast so readily available in so many other venues. We have grown up; and most of the long-termers here are more interested in cultivating ideas than thick skins.

It's true that sone of us spend a good deal more electronic ink trying to avoid slighting each other than we used to, and I wish it weren't so. As I see it, the assumption of benign disagreement and respect that used to be a given here has slipped somewhat. Until that assumption can be restored, we work a little harder than we used to putting ideas first. I'm fine with doing that because, like Kato, I want this site to rise above the muck-raking that buries decent discourse in other locales.

Webstral

[Targan]

I tend to self edit my posts on this forum far more than I do on other forums, for several reasons. I want my posts to be read and I am concerned that if I become known for causing trouble here, people might just skim right over my posts. I consider many posters on this forum to be my friends and I don't want to insult them or show them disrespect.

There are cultural sensibilities to be aware of. In my normal, conversational Australian English I tend to blaspheme quite a lot but I try not to blaspheme at all here. Perhaps I am being over-careful in this but I have become aware that many posters are people of faith and I get the impression that blaspheming is taken a lot more seriously in some other parts of the world than it is here in Australia.

Many posters here are current or former members of the military. In my experience military men tend to be no-bulls**t sorts of people and if they think you are disrespecting or slighting them they tend to just write you off as a fool. I'd really like to avoid that.

Finally, as with any group of people who have known each other for a while, this forum has history. There have been painful (and sometimes unresolved) episodes here and I try to steer newcomers away from (probably accidentally) stirring up matters that are likely best left alone. Lately I seem to have failed in that area though.

[kato13]

Finally, as with any group of people who have known each other for a while, this forum has history. There have been painful (and sometimes unresolved) episodes here and I try to steer newcomers away from (probably accidentally) stirring up matters that are likely best left alone. Lately I seem to have failed in that area though.

Don't worry mate, things 'll be apples soon enough. (Practicing my Australian slang)

[Legbreaker]

Practicing my Australian slang

Badly. Very, very badly.

[kato13]

Badly. Very, very badly.

I figured that.

[kato13]

Since I just was looking up what parts made up the M4A1 puls rifle as I thought the base was a spas-12 (turns out they only used the grip). I thought I would provide a link to the Internet Movie Firearms Database for aliens.

http://www.imfdb.org/index.phptitle=Aliens

For those who have not seen it is a pretty cool site overall.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Wasn't it based on the Thompson or similar smg I didn't know they used SPAS-12 parts but now that you mention it, it is kind of obvious when you look at the grenade launcher section


Update: I've just read the entry at the Movie Firearms Database and found out it was the thompson and not my eyes playing tricks on me

[kato13]

Wasn't it based on the Thompson or similar smg I didn't know they used SPAS-12 parts but now that you mention it, it is kind of obvious when you look at the grenade launcher section

Yeah the main gun was a Thompson and the grenade launcher was a 12 gauge shotgun.

[Legbreaker]

There were three weapons that made up the pulse rifle, the Thompson, SPAS-12 and the Remington 870.

The original had however used the MP-5 in place of the Thompson but the 9mm wasn't able to give enough of a flash so they switch to the larger calibre weapon.

[pmulcahy11b]

Yeah the main gun was a Thompson and the grenade launcher was a 12 gauge shotgun.

I don't understand that; in the movie, they used a 12-gauge shotgun as the grenade launcher (12-Gauge = 18.52mm), but the Colonial Marines Handbook
says the GL is 30mm. When I made up the M-41A for my Best Weapons that Never Were section, I (IIRC) pegged it at 20mm (With a tech level of 11). There is no way that GL is 30mm!

[Legbreaker]

The Aliens rulebook also states it as 30mm and I think it's mentioned as 30mm in the movie too.
Now if only they'd had a 30mm shotgun laying about they could have used for the props....

[kato13]

I don't understand that; in the movie, they used a 12-gauge shotgun as the grenade launcher (12-Gauge = 18.52mm), but the Colonial Marines Handbook
says the GL is 30mm. When I made up the M-41A for my Best Weapons that Never Were section, I (IIRC) pegged it at 20mm (With a tech level of 11). There is no way that GL is 30mm!

Since they only used the real guns for the ease in firing blank shells (for the visual effects) they could have but a 30mm port over the front of shotgun to maintain the visual appearance of a 30mm launcher.

However this

does not look 30mm to me.

[Targan]

A picture I drew of the M41A Pulse Rifle was published in the first edition of Gunmaster.

[kato13]

A picture I drew of the M41A Pulse Rifle was published in the first edition of Gunmaster.

Nice!