I owe so much to the Alien franchise. Like a dark mirror to Star Wars, I watched the first movie around 1992, at the height of the Alien 3 premiere and inexplicable waves of toys, awakening a love of not only the franchise, but also of Science fiction, horror, and Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger, which formed my current interests in concept art, prop making and film production in general.

In 1986, then-freshman director James Cameron was given the task to direct a follow-up to Ridley Scott’s Alien, a film that’s still widely considered to be one of the best science fiction and horror films of all time. In what would become a trademark of Cameron, he not only created a worthy sequel, but changed genres of the films; where Alien was confined terror, Aliens was an open war drama, placing protagonist Ellen Ripley with a platoon of highly-trained Colonial Marines sent to investigate an isolated colony that had mysteriously severed all contact. By crafting his own story, rather than repeat Scott’s, Cameron created something that, like its predecessor, has come to be regarded as one of the best films in its genres as well.

Ahead of 20th Century Fox’s upcoming San Diego Comic-Con livecast, I rewatched the director’s cut of Aliens for the first time in five years, and recorded my thoughts as I was watching:

1. This film is the fork in the road for the Alien franchise. In 1988, fledgling comic book publisher Dark Horse comics published its first Aliens comics series, which acted as a direct sequel to the film, showing the effects of the aliens on protagonists newt, Hicks and Ripley, as well as the Wey;and-Yutani corporation’s continued quest to control the aliens. The comic sequel was voided by the release of Alien 3 in 1992, effectively replacing it. Neill Blomkamp’s upcoming Alien sequel will override the events of Alien 3, and Dark Horse has recently rebooted their Aliens comics. No matter which timeline you follow, Aliens is the branching-off point.

2. The visual effects still shine after 30 years. Much like Star Wars, which inspired Cameron to get involved with filmmaking, his dislike of The Force Awakens notwithstanding, this movie transcends the technological complications of the time to make something that looks really convincing. There’s a lot going on in this film-miniatures, puppetry, actors in alien suits, explosions, trick photography- but it all gels.

3. It’s smartly written. Everything has a nice depth to it, especially in the 1990 special edition, which added close to twenty minutes of additional footage. There’s corporate politics and espionage in the way Burke plays with and preys on Ripley’s personality. There’s an expansion of the universe the Alien films inhabit-every set change, from space stations to the Sulaco’s spacefaring military barracks to the Deteriorating Hadley’s Hope colony gives you an insight into the inevitably complex nature of corporate and governmental interests of space travel and colonization-threads of which are coming into play right now with SpaceX and other companies vying to get us to space and use their various means of tech in our personal and professional lives.

4. Weyland-yutani is basically an evil IKEA. It makes sense for companies to provide everything to their colonists, but everything in Hadley’s Hope has a W-Y logo on it. Spaceships, clipboards, food, weapons, tricycles-everything is branded to an Orwellian extent. I’m positive the boy on the tricycle is a Shining reference though, which is fantastic.

5. Aliens is simultaneously timeless, and a product of it’s time. Aliens premiered at the height of 80’s action movies. As such, it could have fallen victims to the action movie tropes of the 80’s-the one-liners, the big guns, the overly-muscled, sweaty heroes-but it doesn’t. Instead, Cameron had the cast undergo military training together, forming real-life bonds and learning real maneuvers that would translate authentically onscreen. However, the characters of the marines themselves are almost written to the point of caricature.

6.It falls victim to the fashion cliches of the 80’s. Are you seriously telling me that flannel shirts and puffer vests are still a thing two hundred years from now? I blame hipsters.

7.This movie shouldn’t have happened. Between Fox executives constantly changing their minds about whether or not the project should happen to the film crew constantly doubting Cameron's ability and ultimately walking off set when he fired Director of Photography Dick Bush over a lighting dispute, the production had a lot going against it.

8. But not nearly as much as Alien 3 had going against it. Poor David Fincher. He couldn’t even get a script before the day filming started, and would receive multiple revisions while filming, Fox insisted on recutting his finished film-Fincher finally disowned the film, refusing to even do a director’s cut for future releases.

9. Vietnam was a strong inspiration for Cameron. As well as using real-world military training, Cameron drew on real-world military conflicts when creating a story of a military force with superior firepower pitted against a more determined enemy that they don’t fully understand how to defeat.

10. So was Starship Troopers. Robert Heinlein’s 1959 scifi novel, about a militarized Earth fighting an alien bug invasion, was a heavy influence on the film, influencing not only the dialogue, but also the design of the movie, including the dropship and power loaders, which factored into the final fight of the movie.

11. Even if you haven’t seen Aliens, you’ve seen the sets. The power plant set was reused for the chemical plant in Tim Burton’s Batman.

12. Stan Winston is the best. Stan Winston and legacy Effects have created almost every movie monster you’ve ever seen since the 70’s, including The Terminator, the various creatures in The Thing, Predator, Jurassic Park, Galaxy Quest and many, many others. The aliens in Aliens were redesigned from Giger’s original design, and also introduced the Alien Queen, which required 14 puppeteers to operate.

Aliens premiered July 18th, 1986. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for?