Aliens on 70mm

Ridley Scott originated this extremely durable franchise as a claustrophobic, haunted-house horror set in space, and then James Cameron came in and mutated it into a maximalist, hardware-obsessed search-and-destroy war epic, screening at FLC on a 70mm-blow-up print that hasn’t screened in New York City since its original theatrical run in 1986. An unabashedly on-the-nose evocation of the trauma and hubris of Vietnam, Aliens places Sigourney Weaver’s battle-hardened (combat-junkie?) Ripley alongside a swaggering squad of Marines dispatched to a colonized moon, where foolhardy bravado and high-tech weaponry clash disastrously with alien enemies that dominate the terrain and the terrifying intimacy of close combat. The true horror, however, lies not just in the monstrous xenomorphs, but more insidiously in—SPOILER ALERT!—Burke (Paul Reiser), the bland middle manager of the military-industrial complex, Weyland-Yutani, whose concealed agenda turns Ripley, young Newt, the colonists, and even the aliens themselves into expendable test subjects all because of the ruthless calculus of a corporate business plan. So, which species is worse?

Filmed in 35mm spherical by Adrian Biddle using Moviecam equipment and enlarged to 70mm for select first-run engagements in 1986. 

Please note: FLC is screening from one of the original release prints, which uses a vintage magnetic soundtrack. Audio tracks are stored on magnetic stripes attached to the film print itself and are more prone to degrade than optical soundtracks. It will sound louder and richer compared to most 35mm prints and many digital sound systems, but because it’s an older analog format you’ll also hear the wear-and-tear of its many years going through projectors. This is part of the experience, so let every hiss, softness, pop, intermittent silence and visual imperfection remind you of the many audience members who saw this same print before you.