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1 Summary

Analysis response to the movie Aliens. How many aliens were at Hadley's Hope?

There should not be more aliens (non-facehuggers) than the population of the colony and the few rescuers who… So, what I note as a "confirmed kill" is an onscreen death, usually followed by who made the kill. Some confirmed kills are from the audio only, though I did not count all of these. Also, I will assume a significantly rapid gestation time.

Using the special edition version of the film from the Aliens Quadrilogy DVD set.

Beginning

Sublevel 3

Sentry Guns

Operations Room

Return to Sublevel 3

Sulaco

POTENTIAL NUMBER OF ALIENS: 161 TOTAL CONFIRMED KILLS: 42

2 BEGINNING

3 SUBLEVEL 3

Could go back to count the number of instances of weapons discharge that are not confirmed kills. 8 confirmed kills. 3 more aliens are possible, though gestation time may or may not be adequate.

4 Sentry Guns

2000 rounds total, 10 rounds not expelled to the knowledge of the viewer. A and B fired test shots, but did not affect the ammo counters on the displays (either a continuity error or the guns have a standard amount of rounds for a test fire). I think it's safe to say that at least 6 aliens died (and very probably much more), even if there is ambiguity for the onscreen deaths.

5 OPERATIONS ROOM

Again, one could go through and count the number of times a weapon was fired and assume an alien death. However, I only counted purely visual onscreen deaths for this scene. 20 kills. 2 more potential aliens, though they'd never have time to gestate completely.

6 RETURN TO SUBLEVEL 3

No ambiguity here. 5 aliens died.

7 SULACO

No ambiguity here. 1 and all the rest of the aliens died.