abstract
| - Unlike the other alternate versions of the films in the Alien franchise, the Special Edition of Aliens was not created for the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set in 2003 but actually evolved over a period of several years in the late 1980s/early 1990s. It originated with the film's broadcast television debut on CBS in 1989, which featured several deleted scenes reintegrated into the movie to extend its running time. These scenes included Ripley learning of her daughter's death, all sequences involving the robot sentry guns, and Ripley and Hicks exchanging their first names, although at the same time the film was censored for violence and profanity. The remaining extra footage in what is now known as the Special Edition was not added to the film until the extended cut was given a limited home video release on VHS and LaserDisc in 1992. Notably, two of the largest additions to the film — scenes set on LV-426 before the Xenomorph outbreak begins — had not had their special effects finished during the original production and thus remained incomplete. For home video, James Cameron returned to visual effects artists Robert and Dennis Skotak and had them finish the the sequences so that they could be included in the longer cut of the movie. James Cameron had originally intended for the footage added to the Special Edition to be included in the film's theatrical release. However, 20th Century Fox representatives thought the film was showing "too much nothing" and spent an unnecessary amount of time building suspense. Conscious that a film over two and a half hours in length would allow for less screenings per day (and therefore reduced profits), Fox had Cameron cut the running time by over 15 minutes. Since its release, Cameron has described the Special Edition as his preferred cut of the movie and the version he always intended people to see. The Aliens Special Edition was one of the first "Director's Cuts" to gain widespread attention and a home video release (along with the Director's Cut of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner) and can therefore be seen as the beginning of the now common trend of releasing extended/alternate cuts of movies on home video and, in some cases, theatrically. Initially, the Special Edition was said to be a strictly time-limited release that would only be on sale for a period of 100 days, after which it would never been seen again, but this later proved not to be the case and it has been included in virtually all home video releases of Aliens since. It is not clear if this was a reversal on Fox's part resulting from the unexpected success of the alternate cut — the Special Edition VHS and LaserDisc releases sold over 170,000 combined units in the first five weeks of release in the UK alone, on top of some 270,000 units of the original theatrical cut that had already been sold — or whether the situation was simply a sly marketing ploy from the studio to push initial sales.
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