The director's cut of James Cameron's genre-blending classic Aliens contains a deleted scene that shows a group of lunar colonists investigating the derelict ship from the first movie and getting attacked by a facehugger. Widely regarded as one of the finest sequels of all time, the film follows Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of the events of Alien, as she travels with a group of hardened marines to hunt down the predatory Xenomorphs that have overrun the Hadley's Hope colony. However, the Special Edition reveals what the settlement looked like before the aliens struck.
The history of the Special Edition of Aliens is one of the most significant stories regarding a director's cut in the history of home releases, precisely because it demonstrates the difference a theatrical cut can make to a final product. This cut was actually the primary version of the film available to watch on televisions when it aired on CBS in 1987. James Cameron then oversaw a fully restored release of the Special Edition on LaserDisc in 1991. Due to this unusually popular public exposure, as well as Cameron's close association with the product, the director's cut of Aliens is considered to be the definitive and complete story. This is unlike the director's cut of Alien, which includes plot elements and lore that were omitted from later franchise installments, as well as video games and comic books.
In the theatrical version of Aliens, the audience does not see Hadley's Hope until Ripley travels there with the military crew and slimy businessman Burke. Instead, viewers slowly discover the horror of what happened at the colony along with the main characters. The Special Edition, on the other hand, provides backstory about life at the settlement, as well as how the Weyland-Yutani Corporation is responsible for the ensuing tragedy. It also reveals how the colonists awakened the Xenomorphs, which more explicitly raises the story's stakes at an earlier point in the film.
Aliens Derelict Scene Was Cut - Here's Why
The inhabitants of Hadley's Hope are shown to be mostly blue-collar technicians who work on terraforming the moon and who complain about the lack of their employer's transparency. As a working family traverses the surface on a tractor, they decide to investigate the crashed derelict ship from Alien. One of the family's children is Newt, who becomes Ripley's main companion and who sadly witnesses the aftermath of her parents' investigation. As they wander into the remains of the spacecraft, Newt and her brother are left alone until their mother comes running back to make a distress call about a facehugger that has latched onto their father.
According to the audio commentary on the Special Edition home release, which included James Cameron and producer Gale Hurd, the scene was cut at the request of 20th Century Fox executives. Apparently, they felt that this part, along with other deleted scenes that were cut, contained "too much nothing" and ruined the pacing. Aliens is notable for its intense sense of dread and panic as the plot escalates, but the executives thought the added suspense of the derelict scene was unnecessary for developing this mood. Instead, they opted to sustain the mystery of what, exactly, happened to the colony until later in the film.
Some fans of Aliens agree with the studio's decisions and argue that showing Hadley's Hope undermines the sense of tension the viewer shares with Ripley as she discovers the scale of the tragedy. On the other hand, one could argue that a look at Hadley's Hope helps build sympathy with the victims, especially Newt, as learning about their backstory makes them seem more like expendable casualties of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation's meddling. It's a fascinating look at cinematic structure and proof that mere minutes of exposition can significantly alter the way an audience experiences a narrative.
