Question about the explosion - Aliens (1986) Discussion

[–] TylerAArse (2876) 3 months ago

It was because of the pulse rifles. Hotheads Vasquez and Drake did not obey the command to relinquish their pulse rifle ammo to avoid rupturing the lines to the heat exchanges they were below. The main issue is that when inept Gorman gave the order, he didn't explain why. That could've made a difference.

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[–] KingBob (2203) 3 months ago

Thanks, from a storytelling perspective that’s a much better explanation than it having been the crash.

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[–] sonans (1558) 3 months ago

Did you serve in the military before? That is how the tops give orders, they rarely explain the reason.

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[–] TylerAArse (2876) 3 months ago

No, I did not serve in the military. I was only going on what I saw in the movie.

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[–] samoanjoes (56872) 3 months ago

It was because of the rifles. One thing that bothered me is that even after firing, nothing happened. I'm not sure why they wrote in that they shouldn't use their rifles.

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[–] KingBob (2203) 3 months ago

OK, good I was hoping that would be the reason. Wikipedia says it was because of the crash and that would be incredibly lame not to mention it would mean the big deal they made about the pulse rifles wouldn’t have gone anywhere.

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[–] Tam87 (1218) 3 months ago

It was because of the dropship crashing into the power plant's cooling system. Bishop mentions this later on.

Here's the crash which is emphasized showing a few close ups of secondary explosions to let the audience know it was a big impact: https://youtu.be/3Pwx_KFGBPU?feature=shared&t=62

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[–] Aylmer (465) 3 months ago

My guess is that it was a little bit of both - the Aliens sensed it was a critical area and the humans were reluctant to cause any damage there so that's why they built their nest there. The marines not only fired a lot of pulse rifles, but set off a massive explosion there too when their bag of ammo caught fire. I'm sure the matter was only compounded further when the drop ship crashed into the entrance which caused an even larger explosion.

I know Bishop says that the crash caused the explosion, but in truth there's no way he would have known 100%.

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[–] Aylmer (465) 3 months ago

My guess is that it was a little bit of both - the Aliens sensed it was a critical area and the humans were reluctant to cause any damage there so that's why they built their nest there. The marines not only fired a lot of pulse rifles, but set off a massive explosion there too when their bag of ammo caught fire. I'm sure the matter was only compounded further when the drop ship crashed into the entrance which caused an even larger explosion.

I know Bishop says that the crash caused the explosion, but in truth there's no way he would have known 100%.

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