When James Cameron was pitching his vision for Aliens, many believed that making a follow-up to Ridley Scott’s genre-defining sci-fi horror was the quintessential no-win scenario. The Terminator director didn't share their doubts. He was so confident, in fact, that he made his point to studio executives in characteristically bombastic style, writing ALIEN on the back of his script, before adding an S and drawing a couple of lines through it to turn it into a dollar sign.
Whether ALIEN$ was the reason the suits gave the iconic sequel the green light is lost to history, but there's no question Cameron lived up to his self-generated hype – not only did he pluralize the xenomorph threat from the original film, he also delivered healthy returns at the box office.
