Alien / Aliens

ALIEN, 1979, 20th Century Fox, 117 min. From its cool, sinister textures to its (literally) stomach-churning special effects, director Ridley Scott’s ALIEN reinvented the monster-from-space movie as something mesmerizing, inescapable and strangely beautiful. It also introduced the American action heroine in Sigourney Weaver’s tough-as-nails Ripley, going head-to-head with the nightmarish, H.R. Giger-designed insectoid Alien. With Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright. Original version.

ALIENS, 1986, 20th Century Fox, 137 min. Seven years after Ridley Scott’s original ALIEN, James Cameron directed this sinister, explosive WWII-movie-in-space, about a platoon of U.S. Marines stranded on planet LV-426. Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley is darker and richer here -- haunted by alien nightmares, confronting her deepest fears. Watch for Cameron’s flawless feel for detail and pacing, the way he builds suspense scene-by-scene.