As I recently introduced one of my daughter's friends to Alien/Aliens, it got me thinking back to my first Aliens experience, all those years ago.

I'd been a fan of Alien for years, unfortunately being too young to see the movie on the big screen. But, I did watch on VHS a few times.

Then, I picked up a copy of The Sun newspaper, flicked through the articles, to see a picture of Ripley holding onto a ladder for dear life, with a HUGE Alien hanging onto her leg. I thought, WTF?

The waiting game began. I bought the novelisation, but for the first time ever, kept it to one side, not wanting anything to be spoiled. I avoided the sci-fi mags like the plague.

Alien was shown on TV, a couple of nights later was a special on the making of Aliens, then came opening night. My g/f and I stood in line for about an hour at the Odeon in Bristol, went in, sat down and were blown away!

We were young, we were both working, we were living with our parents, we saw the film 26 times over it's initial run. I have NEVER watched any movie that many times at the cinema, EVER.

Many years later, the ABC Whiteladies showed the original Alien and I finally managed to see it on the big screen. Not ashamed to admit it, but despite numerous viewings on TV and VHS, I jumped, especially with the vents and Dallas's demise.

I've seen both on the big screen a couple of times since then, usually as parts of a special showing of the trilogy or 'quadrilogy', but I still think back to that first showing at the Odeon.

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Weyland Yutani Corp. Bio-Weapons Division - "Superior Weapons through Superior Genetics"

I was a really, really young kid...maybe 8 or something? My Dad, being cool...always showed me R rated movies lol. I can remember being scared out of my mind, but absolutely loving it. From there I obtained my own copy on VHS, and I can remember watching it in Grade 8 (I would have been about 12 or 13), and seeing the scenes with the sentry guns. After that, each version I saw didn't have those scenes in it, and it was only until somewhat recently that I found all the extra footage.

But I was hooked after the first one.

First time I saw it was with my dad watching it on TV. The scene with the sentry guns stuck with me, and was a scene I played out with my friends (oh no! They're all out, we better go!). Then I never saw it again and was confused as anything. Much later I learned the deal with the recut and the special edition. So considering I had to have seen the CBS 1989 SE airing, that put me at 8 years old the first time I saw it.

I also remember we had a big Merry-Go-Round at the park near us, and that was our "dropship". I lined up my friends and yelled at them "what are you!?" (Mean!) What are you?!! (Really mean!!!) and we all jumped off that thing one at a time. I remember an old lady busting my balls one time. She was cracking up and said "so you guys are really mean, huh?".
I didnt even dignify her question with a response. Mean old woman! Or so I thought back then. She was probably not making fun of me or even that old, but thats how I remember it.

Being from the UK it was an '18', meaning no-one under 18 was allowed to go to the cinema to see the film.

When I bought the soundtrack (yes, on record not CD!), I saw the 'R' rating on the back, and went "What? Long as your parents are with you, you can see this movie in the States?"

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Weyland Yutani Corp. Bio-Weapons Division - "Superior Weapons through Superior Genetics"

My cousins, brother, and I tried to buy tickets to the movie at the theater at the mall when it came out the summer of 86. We were kids at the time, and the girl behind the ticket counter wouldn't sell us tickets because we didn't have a parent with us - we ended up seeing "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" instead.

But I did happen to catch Aliens when it was released on VHS a couple of years later and do remember watching it on prime-time TV (premiering on CBS if I remember right) where I saw the added footage of Newt and her family and the sentry gun scene for the first time.

This was around the time I saw the movie Zulu, the Alamo (60's version), and Night of the Living Dead on TV, so I took to Aliens as being in this "last stand" genre of movies which I liked, only with bigger guns and creepier invaders.

I remember my Mom bringing me to see it in the theater .(My Mom is very cool) i was terrified of the air vents in our home for months.

Then I saw it again as a teen and spent most of the next few years trying to find a place to get some Colonial Marine gear. All I could think about was how bad a$$ the Marines were facing down these numberless horrors. Knowing that they might never make it out but still throwing down with everything they had.

I'd have to say that there were two "first experiences" where Aliens and specifically the Colonial Marines have amazed me. When I first saw the film and when I saw several Colonial Marines in full kit as well as a certain Xeno with a red dog collar at Dragon Con in 2012. I then realized that this group EXISTED! That I could finally live out my childhood dream of gearing up and joining and I now had the money coming in to afford to look that damn cool!

I found my way here a little while later and began emailing Spat at nauseum with dozens of questions about gear. An awesome and very tolerant guy.

Now I'm a short month away from ordering my Rifleman kit from him. BDUs and all. I have two or three more people saving up to do the same and we're setting our sights on Dragon Con 2014.

This is a great group of people and I'm very glad to have found you all. Looking forward to that Drop.

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"How do you want this door? Bypassed or blown to shit?"

Had half (forget which half it was) on Alien taped off the TV and one day watched it and thought....I wanna' see the second one.
Dug out my brothers VHS copy from the collectors case and saw the queen on the front...too scared to watch it.
Finally caught it on TV I think and guess what....taped half of it

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Sometime in the early 90's, I read the backs of the VHS cases for the first three at my aunt and uncle's and just reading about it scared me. I finally caught aliens on tv in 96 or 97. Watched all of it except the assult on ops because dinner was ready. after dinner was over, came back and noticed Hick's was the only one left. In 98, I spent the 2 week at my Gramma's and she bought me the Aliens special edition on tape when I was there. Watched it everyday for the 2 weeks. Because of her coolness,, my Pulse Rifle is named after her.

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Cpl Chris "Gator" Allegre
A12/TQ1.0.82150E1
I'm a Hugger, not a fighter
Currahee
Construmus Batumius

It took me till 2009 to see aliens. Ive come to be a fan of the film from the opposite direction to normal.

Scapey invited me to MCM Expo in May 09 and by a couple of months beforehand I still hadnt seen the film who's characters id be portraying. Now as every drop passes and every viewing of the film, my love for it grows since the fandom and film are all emotionally tangled in my head!

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MSgt Samantha 'Boltie' Watters
Chief Medical Officer, UKCM
1st Batt. 42nd Regiment - Hadrian's Wall

Area 52 Bioweapons division - Amber T. Alien


"Harsh"

I started with an action figure, and reading the graphic novels in my local library (had to get my dad to get them out as the library ladies wouldn't let me!).
Saw alien resurrection first time it was shown on tv. Even back then, thought it was rubbish.
Found Aliens recorded off tv onto vhs back when I was about 10, 11. Watched it getting really confused for the first 20 mins cause whoever wrote on the tape's label wrote "Alien". Then I realised this must be the sequel.
Watched it solid for a week

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A Scot, a Predator and an Alien walk into a bar....hilarity ensues



Read it here!

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6120506/1/Aliens-Heart-of-Darkness

My parents went to see Alien when I was 10 they came back told me about it and I was hooked I could not soak up enough of it books etc then I saw the VHS 2months later and its still my fave film, on opening night at Odeon marble arch (cinema in London) with a que going for miles I saw Aliens

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SSgt Kris "Bloodsucker" Kobus, VAS.
A09/TQ2.0.12136E1

i remember watching all the hype when some film award thing was on tv back in the day of the films cinema release, lots of nominations and that was when i thought i want to see it

After much buildup in the popular SciFi mags of the day, back when there was no internet, and Fox was able to keep a tight lid on any spoiler leaks to the media, I watched Alien for the first time back in '79 in a theater that had a wide screen (rare in those days). I'd been an avid reader of horror fiction and hard core scifi for years, so I was already looking forward to it for months. I'd seen some of H.R. Giger's bizarre/grotesque paintings and heard that he was involved in making the film. I had no idea it was to be the only movie I've ever seen as an adult that actually creeped me out enough to sleep with a loaded weapon beside me when I got home alone that night!

Fast forward several years and now it's Aliens, with the promo pitch "This time it's WAR!". I think I imagined some of the eggs in the derelict ship had been brought back to Earth and that the xenos were running amok on the planet, or something like that. Again, there wasn't much released back then in the way of spoilers. I was already in Japan and saw it within days of its theatrical release. I really hadn't expected the story to take place on Acheron LV-426 again, but once the reasons for that were revealed I had a pretty good idea what was in store for Ripley, especially after Lt Gorman of the US Colonial Marines was introduced...

Now I was a little surprised to find they were still using relatively contemporary small arms, and that their armor was rather simpler than I would've imagined so many years in the future, esp. after having read so many great science fiction novels beforehand. But there was something about the characters, the Colonial Marines themselves, that drew me in right away. It did take me a while to warm up to Hudson's character, however, as his blatantly insubordinate attitude and whining didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the Marines, and Lt Gorman's inexperience and ineptitude as a leader when the shit hit the fan was disconcerting, but that was only a first impression, and before I'd watched the movie all the way through. Apone, Hicks, Vas, Drake, Ferro, Frost, Bishop, and especially Ripley were all great characters, not to mention Newt and Burke. Hudson turned out to be a real diamond in the rough, especially after getting to see the additional 20 min. that were cut from the theatrical release a couple of years later on a rental video in Japan, before it was available in the states.

I loved the Sulaco and dropship designs, and I thought the smart guns were inspired creations, too. I thought the pulse rifle design was also extremely cool, though I'd imagined something rather more futuristic as a primary weapon, not to mention the "antique" pistols and shotgun Hicks carried. Stan Winston's makeover of Giger's xeno design was also new and inspired I thought, and when the queen was finally revealed near the end, and after the epic battle with Ripley and the power loader, I knew it was going to be a classic. The extended edition made it even more so. The UA571-C RSWS, aka robot sentries, and Hudson's "badass" speech were and are priceless.

I didn't have any trouble sleeping that night, but I do still have marks on my arm where the girl I was dating for the first time had her fingernails dug into my arm through the last hour or so of the movie. Guess I should've taken her to something a little milder. Needless to say, that was our first, and last date. She's long forgotten, but I'm still very much in love with Aliens!

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GySgt Gustafson, Dru R.
Callsign: Mud Shark
A06/TQ0.0.32122E1

I made my wife watch it for the first time...but well AFTER we were married and she couldnt get away! She said it was a little too intense and was mad I stressed her out like that!

I saw it int he theater during it's original theatrical run. I was 18. I absolutely loved it. Then I dragged my dad to see it, then my grandparents, then I saw it again a couple more times. 5 times in all theatrically.

I then purchased the VHS when it was released. I recorded the tv broadcast version containing the add'l scenes and then cut together my own director's cut copy using my VHS and tv version copy. Then years later got the laser disc version of the Director's Cut which was the best thing ever. But of course now, nothing compares to the blu-ray.

My best friend came over when we were both pretty young. He asked me if I had seen Aliens and I told him no. So we watched it on VHS and I fell in love with it and have been a fan ever since.

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"Colonial Marines never die, they go to hell and regroup."

A01/TQ2.0.52152E1
Cpl Waldon B, Callsign: Waldo New York-USA

The first time I saw aliens was on tv years ago as I was far to young to see it at the cinema. Still think the best alien film was the second one aliens. I had alien 3 on the sega mega drive and I purchased the alien shoot em up game like doom when I had my playstation. This is one of my all time favourite si-fi film alongside starwars and ghostbusters

I have always been a fan of sc-fi films i dragged my mum along to see Star Wars when it first came out (i was 12 gong on 13 ) around the same time a magazine called Starburst was launched which i started to collect so the first the i knew about Alien was reading in this magazine , as it was a X cert i could not get to see it when it came out at the cinema , years passed and when Video took off i managed to rent a copy of Alien ( i had already had the photo novel and artbook ) and as we had two video players in the house , you can guess what i did
So years go by my Alien collection grew ,then in 1986 i read about a sequel of Alien was being made called Aliens , from the press photo's i like the future solider look , by then i had seen Terminator .
I went to the cinema the week it opened and saw it twice in the first week , since then i have never looked back , collecting everything i could on the movie , It was the first film i brought on Video ( after i made a pirate copy )
So ever since then my Alien related collection has just grown including props and costumes, crew, jackets , original blueprints
so for a long time i thought i was the only one collecting Alien related stuff , then i started going to SCI -FI shows and i heard about a guy named Harry Harris , and met him at a show where he was displaying some of his costumes , by then i was running my own business and had a few contacts , so i kept an eye out for shows where Harry was displaying and over the years i met some other collectors , then i discovered the Internet and found the Aliens Legacy and i have never looked back ...

at the time of writing i still have my copy of Aliens on Video how geeky is that !

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Pfc Glenn Allen ,
1st Batt. 69th Regiment,
Homers Hero's..
Drops so Far.... 29 and counting

I had watched Aliens first when i was like 7. My Aunt had went out of town and i had borrowed it from her and i was hooked from then. i Cant remember when i saw Alien and Alien 3 but i did see them both before Res came out cuz i saw that in theaters. Ever since i saw Aliens i wanted a PR and armor.....

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SGT Chris Kraemer "BIRD"
S/N: A07/TQ0.0.82154G1 Sgt Kraemer

Summer of 1986, my dad brought me. The film was rated 14, so he had to lie about my age as I was short a few months of age. I was stunned.

I was round my best friend's house for dinner on a Friday evening, we were about 10 at the time. I ended up staying over and we watched it that night. I can't remember whether it was on the tv or from a VHS but either way I was blown away.

I'd already seen Terminator 1 from a copy my grandad had taped from tv and rented T2 and Predator. Watching Aliens was just the next piece of the puzzle that has since become one of the many films that are now such a huge part of my life.

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Cpl Dan Callaghan

"On an express elevator to hell...going down!"

Just call me Admiral....

I cant remember what year it was but i was still in elementary school, i couldn't have been more that 8 years old when alien came on tv.
it scared the livign daylights out of me at such a young age but i still love it today, ill rewatch it whenever i can.

aliens on the other had, that was an odyssey since i was too young when it came out in theaters, and for some reason no video clubs would carry it for one reason or the other. it took me nearly 10 years to find a copy of the movie to watch and enjoy. and im still very much in love with the franchise.

Saw Alien and Aliens both on Opening Night. Stunned by the awesomeness of Aliens. Here was the first "monster" movie where the good guys not only had bad a** guns but cool lookin' armor! Loved every minute of it.

Loved how sci fi video games have honored Aliens by drawing from it and admitting it- Halo amongst many, many others!

Still stunned by the awesomeness of it!

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USCM- The Colonial Marines- A Brotherhood of Bad Asses!

Mom came home one night to a 4-year-old me and my Dad watching Aliens on VHS. I haven't been the same since.

Growing up my friends for whatever reason loved the first Alien. It took years for me to find the courage to watch it by myself. Somehow after doing so the 3rd time I started to like it, and years later appreciated every facet of it. Aliens of course is just a fantastic action movie with excellent themes which also, took time for me to find the courage to start watching it.

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"I'm just an old city cowboy trying not to fall out of his saddle."