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How Firing A Key Cast Member Changed Aliens Forever
Mar 31, 2025
When James Cameron wanted to make a sequel to Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic Alien, there was a lot at stake. Not only was Cameron relatively inexperienced at the time, but the notion of making a sequel to Alien was hard to get green lit. Even as production got started James Cameron hit a pretty substantial speed bump. His original actor playing Cpl. Hicks was fired from production, only to be replaced with a completely new person. But why exactly did they fire the original Cpl. Hicks from Aliens?
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Trust me
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James Cameron's Aliens is one of the best examples of an action horror film
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The electric cast, enrapturing story structure, and an atmospheric dread punctured by rapid bursts of action
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have propelled the film into being a classic, the likes of which is rarely rivaled
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The central relationship between Ripley and Corporal Hicks is also one of the most iconic pairings in genre filmmaking, and yet the now beloved performance of
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Michael Biehn almost was never to be. Hicks was almost played by another actor entirely
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Ridley Scott's Alien redefined the aesthetics of science fiction on the big screen when it was
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released in 1979. From its Ron Cobb-designed industrial spaceship interiors to its H.R
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Giger spawned otherworldly alien creatures, the film captured the minds of audiences across the
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globe. It was a runaway success. However, it took nearly 10 years for the film to generate a sequel
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The film Aliens, released in 1986, is the brainchild of cinematic auteur James Cameron
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Having just written and directed The Terminator, a cult horror film that took on huge box office
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gains, all eyes were on Cameron. But how does the man who half-directed Piranha 2 and only had
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one hit under his belt convinced the studio to risk the legacy of a beloved classic space horror
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film. At this point, it's practically an urban legend. Cameron sold the executives at Fox on
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the prospect of producing an Alien sequel by attending a meeting, writing the word Alien on
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a whiteboard, then adding an S, and then drawing a line through it to form a dollar sign. Fox agreed
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with Cameron assertion there was money to be made off the nightmarish visuals that Scott and company had created Cameron pitched something wildly different a departure sequel that would throw out nearly everything else from the visuals of the first movie
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Gone would be the oil Derrick employees crossed with deep space blue-collar workers
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It would be military personnel chic. Hey, Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man
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No. Have you? Cameron wanted to make the film a romantic military space
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epic horror film for the ages. Bridge over the River Kwai crossed with Gone with the Wind with a backdrop of interstellar
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nightmare fuel. Yes, they'd keep H.R. Giger's terrifying alien design, but for the rest of the film
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they take a more is more approach. Why have one alien when you can have hundreds
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Cameron pitched a story that would see Ripley working as a consultant, journeying with a
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platoon of space marines that had discovered a new infestation of these horrifyingly vicious extraterrestrials
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Production for Aliens began in September of 1985 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, London
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The brash young filmmaker, used to working on low-budget genre spaces, clashed with the traditional English crew. Multiple key members of the production staff
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thought Cameron didn't have enough experience to make the film and so actively worked against him
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during the shoot. The conflict came to loggerheads when cinematographer Dick Bush insisted that the
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xenomorph hive should be lit brightly so that the audience could observe the intricacies of the
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costumes. Cameron wanted a smoky and atmospheric aesthetic to the Hive. After shooting for a few
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days with Bush's lighting choices, Cameron pulled rank and had Bush fired. The mounting pressures
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seemed to be getting worse and worse by the day, until something almost unthinkable happened. One
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of the main American actors in the film needed to be sent home immediately. That's it, man. Game over
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man. It's game over. James Remar had made a name for himself on the large and small screen
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Turning in brooding performances in films like The Warriors and Cruising he would eventually go on to be recognizable for roles in Dexter and Django Unchained However at this point Remar looked as though he was poised to break out into a quintessential leading
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man for the 1980s. For Aliens, Cameron cast him as Hicks, the film's central love interest for
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Ripley and leader of the Space Marines. Cameron was looking for someone who had a rugged masculinity
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the emotional vulnerability to betray Sigourney Weaver's love interest, and the paternal honesty
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to be the adoptive father for the character Newt, the sole survivor of the base the Space Marines explore
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However, this arc towards superstardom was short-lived for Remar, as while they were filming Aliens
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it was discovered that he was in the possession of illegal substances. After only a few weeks on the film
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this discovery sent Remar's visa, his possibilities of work, and the entire production into tailspin
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The production took a solve the problem and don't talk about it with anyone style approach
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to this unfortunate turn of events. Remar was sent home, and Cameron's Terminator colleague Michael Biehn received a phone call in the middle of the night
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asking him if he had a working passport. The next thing he knew, he was on a plane to England
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He would be the new Hicks. If you watch the finished film, you can see that Hicks' military gear
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specifically his flak vest, moves around on him and appears to be two sizes too large
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This is because the costume was fitted for Remar and the production didn't have the time or money to be able to tailor them to Michael Biehn's body correctly
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In 2011, at a convention appearance, actress Cynthia Dale Scott, who played Diedrich in the film, said
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And we showed up for the day, and we looked at the call sheet, and we're reading, and we're going
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Michael Biehn, who's Michael Biehn? And they said, he's Hicks. After Biehn touched down at Heathrow, he and Cameron had an impromptu meeting
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where they slightly altered the character of Hicks to distinguish him from the character of Kyle Reese
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the time-traveling soldier that Biehn had previously embodied for Cameron. Come with me if you want to live
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These small tweaks ultimately ended up creating the aspects of Hicks personality that made him such a fan character In spite of the recasting the schedule for Aliens was grueling and did not present many opportunities for reshoots As such footage of Remar as Hicks is included in the
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finished film. The production had already completed filming on the Hive Assault sequence
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much of which was far too expensive to reshoot. Granted, it's from the back and in shadow
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so unless you know it's him, you'd never guess. The trinity of Ripley, Hicks, and Newt was so
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beloved by fans that when the franchise distanced itself from Hicks and Newt in Alien 3
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it's arguable that they killed the franchise's viability. Yes, the film is an action horror film
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but the human characters, their relationships, and the theme of found family struck a chord with viewers
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in a way that no one could have imagined. This was in large part due to Michael Biehn's steely yet vulnerable performance
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His rendition of Hicks is what made the film function. You instantly believe the connection he has with both Ripley and Newt
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They feel like a familial unit almost immediately. Without him, who knows if the film is half as successful
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Could James Remar have had an equally iconic turn as Hicks? It's possible, however, the wounded nature of Bean's performance
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allows the audience and Ripley to fall in love with him. It's a locator
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Then I can find you anywhere in the complex on this. Thanks
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Despite the multiple decades in between the film's production and its not inconsiderable critical acclaim
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much of the cast has chosen to never speak about Remar's firing. The ultimate lesson of Aliens is that sometimes you have to adapt to your surroundings
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You have to take into consideration that things aren't going to go the way you wanted
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so you have to evolve. Aliens is now a beloved classic that is one of the most celebrated films produced in the 1980s
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It's arguably the best film in the Aliens franchise. It expands the world of the original film, gave the titular villain a name, Xenomorph
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and developed Ripley into one of the most iconic characters in genre history
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And yet, with one small piece of the puzzle missing, would it have been the same
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