Aliens might be full of explosive action, xenomorph terror — and also a cat because Jonesy is still in this one, too — but it’s also full of a surprising amount of banter. That’s all down to the Colonial Marines, who definitely don’t sound like polished movie characters; they sound like people who have spent way too long together. According to one of its stars, the reason it worked so well came from a careful mix of James Cameron‘s script and the cast being allowed to play around when the moment called for it.
Speaking during a Big Lick Comic Con NOVA panel moderated by Collider’s Maggie Lovitt, Ricco Ross, who played Private Frost in Aliens, was asked how much of the movie’s famously sharp dialogue was improvised. Ross said it wasn’t as simple as the cast just making everything up on the fly. The reason it works so well is that, although the Marines have so much tech, they’re clearly just a ragtag bunch of normal folks who happen to be hunting down aliens.
“It was a little of both,” said Ross, when asked about how much of the movie was scripted vs. natural conversation. “Well, actually, it was mostly scripted, and a little ad lib. Most of the ad lib, I think, took place maybe at the breakfast table when they do the knife thing, because James will give you just enough rope to hang yourself, and if it worked, he would keep it in.”
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
James Cameron Let ‘Aliens’ Stars Try Things
Ross went on to share how one of his own improvised lines made it into the film. The moment came during the hypersleep sequence, when the physical reality of the setup gave him a reaction that it would be almost impossible to fake. “We’re lying in the hyper chamber, and they’re setting up a mirror so it can look like [there’s] twice as many hyperchambers than they had. And they’re standing it up, and they have to be perfect for the camera, and right where the mirrors meet, they hung a chain, and they had to be perfectly set there,” Ross explained. “And I’m lying in this damn hyper chamber thing at 6′ 3″, thinking ‘I hate this job,’ so I get out when this film starts rolling, when he’s shooting the scene, and I decided to utter those words, and after the take, he goes, ‘Keep it in.’”
From there, the line stayed. Ross said Cameron liked the moment enough that he had him repeat it in later takes, while also allowing the cast to riff during the table scene as long as the material actually helped the movie. Ross continued:
“Every take after that, I would keep it in, because he liked lines. At the table, when we were at the breakfast table, people were throwing in lines and just playing with things, and James was cool with that, if it worked. If it didn’t work, he would tell you, or it would hit the editing table, and you would never see it.”
Ross also pointed to one of the movie’s more memorably weird pieces of Marine banter, the Arcturian line, as an example of the cast riffing in the moment. “I think there was one line, somebody asked me to sign it today, about the Arcturian poontang,” Ross laughed. “I can’t remember the line about the Arcturian poontang, but I know, was it you? […] I know Danny said something [like] ‘Yeah, but yours was a male, Frost.’ And he just threw that line at me, right? So, I replied back, ‘Hey, baby, it don’t mind when it’s Arcturian.’ I don’t even know what Arcturians looked like,” laughed Ross. “We were just riffing.”
Aliens is streaming now on Disney+ and Hulu. Stay tuned for more at Collider.
