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Before James Cameron made Aliens, nobody knew quite what to expect. The now-legendary director only had The Terminator under his belt back then – and as much of a hit as that film was, it wasn’t a dead-cert that he’d be able to deliver a worth follow-up to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic Alien. Fast forward 40 years, and it’s unfathomable that it was ever in doubt; Cameron knocked it out of the park, taking Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and turning her into an all-out action hero, teaming her up with a ragtag bunch of memorable grunts, and sending them out to face a whole load of marauding Xenomorphs. Part action film, part war movie, all while retaining that horror core, Aliens blew the roof off.
To mark four decades of Cameron’s incredible sequel, Empire sat the filmmaker down with Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn (Hicks) and Jenette Goldstein (Vasquez) for an epic reunion interview; it had been 10 years since they were last together (that’s two Avatar sequels ago), and they went deep on their experiences of shooting the film, the challenges of the production, and when they last actually watched it.
You can read the full reunion interview (a massive 14-page blowout) in the Aliens issue – pre-order online here – but first, here’s a sneak peek of the conversation:
EMPIRE: When was the last time all of you were together?
Sigourney Weaver: Was it the 30th anniversary?
Michael Biehn: Yeah, at Comic-Con in San Diego.
James Cameron: Can you imagine? Forty years, guys.
Weaver: I know, it feels like yesterday to me.
Cameron: And we’re still the same punks we were then.
Weaver: Well, you especially.
How long is it since you last sat down to watch the film? Did you think it held up well?
Jenette Goldstein: I saw it last year in Liverpool at a convention. You see something different each time you watch it. Every part of it is just filled. I’ve seen it so many times — I’m embarrassed to say how many!
Biehn: The last time I saw it would have been about three or four years ago in Australia, when I was asked to introduce the movie. Even though I did The Terminator with Jim, I think Aliens is the best movie I’ve ever been in. It’s absolutely astonishing that it holds up from a visual-effects standpoint, 40 years later.
Cameron: I screened Alien and Aliens back-to-back for my teenage kids about five or six years ago. They were impressed equally by both films, which is a good reaction. So I got some dad points for that.
Weaver: Well, I envy you guys. I’m certainly not going to sit around in our little den and watch it on my TV, so I haven’t had an opportunity to look at it again all the way through. I would love to, though. I just remember it all so vividly — it’s almost like it happened to me. But I certainly hear what you’re saying, Michael. Because I read this script that came out of nowhere by this person James Cameron, and it was one of the most extraordinarily structured, thematic, loaded scripts I’d ever read. I felt like it was this beautiful aria between Ripley and the Alien Queen. Jim’s such a wonderful director. Except for Titanic, his films are almost unsinkable!
Cameron: I wish you had led with that when we first met! I was petrified of you. I had been writing for months with your picture up on the wall right in front of my little writing station. I was desperately trying to channel what you and Ridley had created for Ripley, and extrapolate forward with my own post-traumatic-stress-syndrome motif.
Weaver: I loved that. I thought that was the perfect beginning for her.
Cameron: Yeah, but when we first met I was terrified of what you were going to say about it. And it turns out, funnily enough, that you hadn’t even read all the machine-gun and flamethrower parts of the script!
Weaver: That’s true, I just had to find out what happened next!
Cameron: All that prose that’s in-between my dialogue, why bother?
Is there any one scene that you look back on filming with particular fondness?
Cameron: I think when the APC burned and everybody was screaming!
Goldstein: Right, when I couldn’t breathe, when I was being suffocated.
Cameron: When Jenette was choking to death and everything was on fire!
Goldstein: Definitely.
Cameron: I’m sure Carrie has her fond memory of being stuck in the alien hive with me putting slime on her face. She looked at me plaintively and said, “You know, it should be illegal for you to do this to little kids.” Shut up and take the slime, kid!
Read the full Aliens reunion interview in the Summer 2026 issue of Empire – on sale Thursday May 7. Pre-order a copy online here.
