http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/Aliens

This is a page listing characters in Aliens.

For recurring characters in the entire series, see the main characters page.

Warning: here be heavy unmarked spoilerage.

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Crew of the USS Sulaco

In General

USS Sulaco Ripley and the Colonial Space Marines. note Hudson, Burke, Wierzbowski, Dietrich, Vasquez, Crowe, Hicks, Ripley, Drake, Frost, Spunkmeyer, Bishop, Gorman, Ferro, Apone. The USS Sulaco is a Conestoga-class starship that transports Ripley and the Colonial Space Marines. Master Sergeant Al Apone

Corporal Cynthia Dietrich

Corporal Collette Ferro

Corporal Dwayne Hicks

Private First Class William Hudson

Private First Class Daniel Spunkmeyer

Private First Class Jenette Vasquez

Private Timothy Crowe

Private Mark Drake

Private Ricco Frost

Private Trevor Wierzbowski

Lance Bishop With additions for the 'bug hunt': Ellen Ripley

Lieutenant Scott Gorman

Carter J. Burke

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Gorman

Apone

Master Sergeant Al Apone "Look into my eye." Portrayed By: Al Matthews Al Matthews "All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal's a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I love the Corps! " The squad leader of the team sent to investigate LV-426. Far more liked and respected than his C.O, Lieutenant Gorman. Boisterous Bruiser: A grunt at heart: There's some juicy colonists' daughters we have to rescue from their virginity.

Cigar Chomper: He apparently keeps some in his hypersleep chamber, since he puts one in his mouth seconds after getting up.

Deadpan Snarker: Oh, he engages in a lot of snark-to-snark combat with Hudson.

Fate Worse than Death: APC readouts show he isn't killed in the attack, making it more likely he was cocooned by the xenomorphs. It's not revealed if he was parasitized prior to the reactor explosion.

A Father to His Men: He loves his Marines to death. His falling in combat devastates his platoon.

Nice Hat: As displayed to the right.

Reasonable Authority Figure: When Ripley asks if she could help them out with the Loaders, he allows her to do so and is impressed at how much of a natural she is with them.

Sacrificial Lion: You'd be forgiven for thinking he was going to impact the story more than he did. Initially, Apone enjoys lots of screentime with memorable lines aided by a wonderfully hammy performance from Al Matthews... but during the first incursion, he's quickly taken out by an alien. Apone's demise serves to show that even lovable badasses are not immune to a horrible Fate Worse than Death. Likewise, his demise has a devastating effect on the platoon's performance and morale.

Sergeant Rock: Practically the classic example.

classic example. The Worf Effect: While many of the marines who die early on were stamped with 'faceless cannon fodder' across their chests, Apone and Drake's deaths shows just how serious the alien threat is.

Hicks

Ripley

Hudson

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Vasquez

Drake

Bishop

Ferro

Dietrich

Corporal Cynthia Dietrich "Physically she's okay. Borderline malnutrition, but I don't think any permanent damage." Portrayed By: Cynthia Dale Scott Cynthia Dale Scott "Maybe they don't show up on infra-red at all." The marines' medic. Combat Medic: Acts as the Marines' medic, but is also a tall, imposing woman who gets stuck into battle wielding a flame-thrower.

Fate Worse than Death: Dietrich's vital signs show she's still alive after the fight — which means she was facehugger bait.

The Fettered: When she discovers one of the colonists cocooned, but still alive, she determinedly administers medical aid, and has to be practically torn away by Apone as the colonist's chest bursts open. Dietrich: Get over here, we've got a live one! You're going to be ok. We've gotta get her out of here—*colonist's chest ruptures*—convulsion! Apone : Dietrich, GET BACK!

Kill It with Fire: She's one of the team's flamethrower operators. Later manages to kill it — unfortunately, "it" in this case is Frost, when her flamethrower fires after she's grabbed from behind by an alien.

Mauve Shirt: She's killed during the first encounter with the aliens.

The Medic: For the marines — her medical skills come in handy when the team discovers Newt, and Dietrich concludes that she's fine apart from borderline malnutrition.

Scream Discretion Shot: During the first encounter, Dietrich is grabbed from behind by an alien and lets out a blood-curdling scream as she's dragged upwards to her fate.

The Smart Guy: Makes some intelligent observations, such as speculating that the Aliens don't show up on infrared.

Unfriendly Fire: When Dietrich gets grabbed by the Aliens, she triggers her flamethrower and sets Frost on fire, causing him to fall to his death. Then the ammunition bag he was carrying and was set on fire explodes, blasting Crowe into a wall and breaking his neck.

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Frost

Private Ricco Frost "What do you expect us to use man, harsh language?" Portrayed By: Ricco Ross Ricco Ross "Man, I'm telling you, I got a bad feeling about this drop." A trooper and rifleman. Frost was the driver of the unit's APC and seemed to have a good friendship with some of the marines, especially Hicks. Ambiguously Bi: It's incredibly subtle, but he seemingly had sex with a male 'Arcturian' with no regrets. He also has a heart-and-arrow decoration on his armor with the name "Heath" (Short for Heather, Ricco Ross' girlfriend at the time), although that isn't necessarily a romantic implication.

Black Dude Dies First: He's the first marine to die, burned alive by Dietrich when an alien grabs her from behind, then fell down a stairwell.

Cassandra Truth: "I got a bad feeling about this drop." Frost, you have no idea how right your are.

Deadpan Snarker: Every other line of Frost's dialogue is this. [after Ripley blows up at Bishop in the cafeteria] "Guess she don't like the cornbread, either." [upon being told he can't use his weapon] "What do you expect us to use man, harsh language?"

Ironic Name: Given the manner of his demise and according to Ricco Ross, intentional on James Cameron's part.

Kill It with Fire: He's killed when Dietrich's flamethrower activates after she's attacked by an alien.

The Lancer: To his pal Hicks. He doesn't last long, however.

Mauve Shirt: Frost gets slightly more characterisation than the other Red Shirt marines, but still dies very quickly during the first encounter with the aliens.

Railing Kill: Falls off a catwalk to his death after being set on fire.

Spunkmeyer

Private First Class Daniel Spunkmeyer "I'm in, ramp closing" Portrayed By: Daniel Kash "What's this crap supposed to be?" The dropship chief weapons officer who worked often with Ferro. Danger Deadpan: He has moments of this in the cockpit.

The Load: How Ferro seems to view him — vaguely tiresome and inept.

Mauve Shirt: Killed (off-screen) when an alien manages to board the drop-ship.

Too Dumb to Live: You see evidence of an Alien in your ship, you do not seal yourself in. Granted, he wasn't with the team that first went in, so it doesn't seem very likely he knew what the secretion in the dropship actually was.

Crowe

Private Tim Crowe Portrayed By: Tip Tipping Tip Tipping "You always say that Frost, you always say, I got a bad feeling about this drop..." Rifleman in the Marine squad. Neck Snap: He gets hurled into a wall by an ammunition bag exploding and snaps his neck upon impact.

The Quiet One: Only speaks twice, the first time he's off-screen and is inaudible the second time.

Red Shirt: Exists basically to fill space and then go down.

Wierzbowski

Private Trevor Wierzbowski Portrayed By: Trevor Steedman Flamethrower operator in the Marine squad. The Big Guy: Seriously, he's pretty darn big. Apone even sends him off alone when in the colony.

Flipping the Bird: A Freeze-Frame Bonus reveals he flips off Gorman in frustration when the meeting concludes.

Kill It with Fire: Wields a flamethrower as his weapon of choice.

The Quiet One: Has no lines of dialogue, only a scream in the Theatrical Cut. He has a three word line in the Special Edition and even then others are speaking over him when he does so. This is in stark contrast to Alan Dean Foster's novelization, where Wierzbowski has several lines given to other characters in the film.

Red Shirt: Exists basically to fill space and then go down.

Sound-Only Death: He's heard screaming as a xenomorph mauls him to death off-screen.

Colonists of LV-426

Newt

Russ & Anne

Russ & Anne Jorden Portrayed By: Jay Benedict & Holly de Jong Newt's parents, two of the "wildcatters" whom Operating Manager Al Simpson sends beyond the colony to search for a derelict ship. The pair discover the Space Jockey's derelict ship and are presumed to have discovered the ancient Alien egg nest inside the ship. Bold Explorer: They rove around the un-mapped terrain of an alien planet with their kids in tow, hoping to profit from any salvage they find.

Driven to Suicide: Plans on doing this to herself and her kids when the colonists have their last stand in the Newt's Tale comic series, reasoning that it's a better fate than being ripped apart by the xenomorphs. However, Newt convinces them they can escape, and leads them to an airduct as the xenos are ripping apart the colonists.

Hope Spot: During the colonists' last stand in the Newt's Tale series, Newt tells Anne she knows of a way to escape and leads them to a nearby airduct as the colonists are massacred. Anne doesn't make it , and gets ripped apart by the xenos at the entrance to the airduct, while Timmy is sprayed by acid blood and is presumably killed instantly, before Newt escapes into the ducts

Trauma Conga Line: In the Newt's Tale tie-in comic series, Anne gets put through the wringer, watching her husband get attacked and implanted by a facehugger, being present when the chestburster rips out of him, and forced to watch as the colonists are boxed in further and further by the xenomorphs, eventually resulting in her, her children and the rest of the colonists barricading themselves in the mess hall to hold out for rescue.

Unwitting Instigator of Doom: After Russ goes out to the derelict spacecraft, he's implanted by a facehugger, thus setting off the entire chain of events. It's hard to blame him, though; he had no way of knowing what would happen. Burke gave him no information or warning.

Timmy

Timmy Jorden Portrayed By: Christopher Henn Newt's brother. He keeps his little sister company in the family's tractor as their parents investigate inside the Space Jockeys ship. First-Name Basis: Timmy is the only person who calls Newt by her real name, Rebecca.

What Happened to the Mouse?: His fate is never explained — all we know is that he's dead by the time the marines land on LV-426. The Newt's Tale comic series shows that he was sprayed by acid blood during the colonists' last stand, but it's left unclear whether he was killed outright or used as a host by the xenomorphs.

Mary

Mary Portrayed By: Barbara Coles Barbara Coles "Please... Kill... me..." Mary is the cocooned colonist whom the Marine squad discovers alive in the hive. She pleads with the Marines to kill her, as Corporal Dietrich tries to comfort her. All Webbed Up: Her state when the marines locate her.

Cruel and Unusual Death: Due to having to endure the excruciating agony of a chestburster's humiliating birth. Made doubly cruel because since Apone chose to burn her "child" with Crowe's incinerator, her final sensation before passing into oblivion was the compounded agony of being seared to a crisp in an inferno.

I Cannot Self-Terminate: She has seen what happened to the other colonists around her, she knows she has been implanted, she knows what will happen to her, but thanks to being completely immobilized by the Aliens' restraining webbing, the only way she could end her life with any dignity would be to bite through her own tongue and bleed/choke to death, an incredibly painful demise in itself that she wouldnt have had the courage to go through with either. So, when she realized that the marines have found her, Mary begs them for a quicker and painless end, which they sadly did not give her in time.

Not Quite Dead: She's practically comatose when the Marines find her, but she's alive. For a little while, anyway.

Simpson

Al Simpson Portrayed By: Mac Mac Mc Donald "Christ! Some honch in a cushy office on Earth says go look at a grid reference. We look. They don't say why, and I don't ask. I don't ask because it takes two weeks to get an answer out here, and the answer is always "Don't ask!"" The colonial administrator in charge of the colony Hadley's Hope. Just Following Orders: In charge of the colony of Hadley's hope he gets frequent orders and has to follow them without asking questions.

Space Trucker: Of a sort. He's the administrator of a small colony and power generation station.

Punch-Clock Villain: The company asks him to do something. He does it and knows better than to ask questions.

Other Characters

Burke

Van Leuwen

Van Leuwen Portrayed By: Paul Maxwell Paul Maxwell "Thank you, that will be all." The chairman of the Interstellar Commerce Commission board that reviewed Ripley's case concerning the destruction of the Nostromo. He dismissed her claims, revoked her flight license and submitted her for psychological evaluations. Head-in-the-Sand Management: While Ripley's story is certainly pretty unprecedented, he refuses to entertain the possibility that it was not something she just hallucinated or made up. Then again, there is a colony on LV-426 and they didn't report anything of the sort.

Jerkass: He is less than understanding of what Ripley has been through (including her 57 years in hypersleep) and pretty much disbelieves everything she says about the xenomorph.

Jerkass Has a Point: In a way. It's hard to blame him for disbelieving Ripley's tale, considering that she had no proof to back up her claims. When she talks to Van Leuwen after the hearing, he seems like a pretty nice and reasonable guy. Plus, despite not believing her tale, he just took away her license for "questionable judgement" rather than assuming she had essentially murdered the rest of the Nostromo's crew.

Obstructive Bureaucrat: He strips Ripley of her flight license because she showed "questionable judgement" in destroying the ore shipment in order to kill the xenomorph, which he thinks is made up anyway.

The Alien Hive of Hadley's Hope

The Drones/The Warriors

The Alien Queen