Aliens Poster #63 Ripley w/ M41A Pulse Rifle Aliens James Cameron

Description

Aliens is a 1986 American science-fiction action horror film written and directed by James Cameron, produced by his then-wife Gale Anne Hurd, and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton. It is the sequel to the 1979 film Alien and the second installment of the Alien franchise. The film follows Weaver’s character Ellen Ripley as she returns to the planet where her crew encountered the hostile Alien creature, this time accompanied by a unit of space marines.

Brandywine Productions was interested in a follow-up to Alien as soon as its 1979 release, but the new management at 20th Century Fox postponed those plans until 1983. That year Brandywine picked Cameron to write after reading his script for The Terminator, and once that film became a hit in 1984, Fox greenlit Aliens, that would also be directed by Cameron, with a budget of approximately $18 million. The script was written with a war film tone influenced by the Vietnam War to contrast the horror motifs of the original Alien. It was filmed in England at Pinewood Studios and at a decommissioned power plant in Acton, London.

Aliens was a critical and commercial success, with positive reviews that considered it an entertaining film that despite the tonal shift still served as a worthy sequel to Alien, and grossed $180 million worldwide. The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including a Best Actress nomination for Sigourney Weaver, winning both Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects. It won eight Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film, Best Actress for Weaver and Best Direction and Best Writing for Cameron. Aliens is frequently considered one of the best action films ever released.

Cameron drew inspiration for the Aliens story from the Vietnam War, a situation in which a technologically superior force was mired in a hostile foreign environment: “Their training and technology are inappropriate for the specifics, and that can be seen as analogous to the inability of superior American firepower to conquer the unseen enemy in Vietnam: a lot of firepower and very little wisdom, and it didn’t work.” The attitude of the space marines was influenced by the Vietnam War; they are portrayed as cocky and confident of their inevitable victory, but when they find themselves facing a less technologically advanced but more determined enemy, the outcome is not what they expect. Cameron listed Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Starship Troopers as a major influence that lead to the incorporation of various themes and phrases, such as the terms “the drop” and “bug hunt”, as well as the cargo-loader exoskeleton.

“I wanna introduce you to a personal friend of mine. This is an M41A Pulse Rifle. Ten millimeter, with over-and-under thirty millimeter pump action grenade launcher.” ?Cpl. Hicks, to Ripley.

The M41A Pulse Rifle is a pulse-action, air-cooled, selective fire assault rifle chambered for 10×24mm Caseless ammunition manufactured by Armat Battlefield Systems. It was mainly employed by the United States Colonial Marine Corps and the United States Army as their primary infantry weapon during the late 22nd century. Through its use with the USCM, it saw regular use in various engagements with the Xenomorph and Yautja species.

Lightweight and rugged, the M41 is constructed largely from ultra-light alloy precision metal stampings, with a titanium aluminide alloy outer casing and high-impact, temperature resistant plastics for many of its internal parts. The M41A is fully sealed against corrosion, dirt and moisture and its electronics are hardened against TREE and background radiation, making it perfectly usable even in a vacuum. By itself the rifle weighs only 3.2 kg, although this increases to 4.9 kg when including the sling and fully-loaded magazine, and is built around a 24.7 cm long barrel.

The M41A uses an electronic pulse action to fire, controlled directly from the trigger. The internal mechanism, including the rotating breech, is mounted on free-floating rails within a carbon-fiber jacket and the entire assembly is recoil dampened to reduce the effects of muzzle climb during burst and fully-automatic fire. Even so, the weapon’s recoil is fairly significant. A thumb selector allows the firer to switch between selective, four-round burst or fully automatic firing modes. In the event of a stoppage, a manual cocking handle on the right hand side of the receiver allows the user to check for rounds in the chamber or clear the breech in the event of a stoppage. The standard M41A ammunition magazine stores 99 rounds in a ‘U’ bend conveyor. Rounds are fed mechanically into the weapon’s rotating breech. While the magazine weighs 1.5 kg when fully loaded, standard practice is to only fill it to 95% capacity (95 rounds) to prevent jamming.

The M41A usually mounts the underbarrel U1 Grenade Launcher, comprising a barrel, breech and four-round internal magazine, fired using a trigger just in front of the rifle magazine, the housing for which doubles as a grip during grenade firing. While this launcher was integral to initial versions of the rifle, later models (specifically the M41A MK2) featured a modular system that allowed the launcher to be swapped out for a different unit at the user’s discretion. Grenades must be hand-loaded into the launcher’s four-round magazine, which are then loaded into the breech and primed to fire from a pump action.

The ammo counter of Ripley’s Pulse Rifle indicating there are 49 rounds left in the magazine. Sighting is made down a groove in the top of the carrying handle, with an adjustable tangent leaf backsight in the rear aperture. The rifle can also be fitted with a 3x power AN/RVS-52 CCD television sight to allow for accuracy at range and under low light conditions. A spring-loaded extendible stock allows the gun to be used in either a carbine or rifle format while an LCD ammunition counter display just below the receiver informs the user of the remaining ammunition supply at a glance; this display can be dimmed for night operations. The carrying handle also contains the gun’s Lithium battery; providing power for motor mechanism it is good for 10,000 rounds before requiring recharge from a rifle rack or portable power pack.

The live-firing M41As in the Alien film series were designed by Aliens director James Cameron. Cameron’s concept designs were then realized by Simon Atherton, head of British movie armorers Bapty & Co., who selected appropriate weapons on which to base the rifles. The practical Pulse Rifles were constructed from three real-world firearms — an M1A1 Thompson submachine gun as the rifle frame, and a cut-down Remington Model 870 covered with the handguard and slide action sleeve of a Franchi SPAS-12 for the grenade launcher. The rifles were finished with futuristic aluminum shells that were hand made by a race car manufacturer.

James Cameron spent two days perfecting the distinctive sound effects for the Pulse Rifle in Aliens. The M41A is undoubtedly one of the most popular weapons ever created for a sci-fi film, and countless variants (both official and fan-made) have been created since the release of Aliens.

Ellen Louise Ripley is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Alien film series played by American actress Sigourney Weaver. She is often considered as one of the best female protagonists of all time: it was heralded for challenging gender roles, particularly in the science fiction, action and horror genres, gave world recognition to Weaver and remains her most famous role to date.

She has been included in many Best Characters lists: In 2011, Total Film ranked her first of their top 100 Greatest Female Characters. Ripley has been selected as the eighth-greatest hero in American cinema history by the American Film Institute, as the fifth-coolest hero in pop culture by Entertainment Weekly, the ninth-greatest movie character ever by Empire (the highest-placing female of the list), and the eighth-best movie character of all time by Premiere, In 2011, John Scalzi called her “Clearly the Best Female Character in Scifi Film”.

Weaver’s performances have been highly praised as well: for Aliens, she earned her first Academy Award nomination for the Best Actress, which is now seen as a landmark in the recognition of science fiction, action, and horror, at a time when the Academy gave little recognition to such genres. For her role in the franchise, Weaver has also been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, a BAFTA Award for Best Leading Newcomer, and four Saturn Awards for Best Actress, winning one for Aliens.

Ripley also appeared in various other media, including novels, comic books, and video games. In 2014, Weaver reprised her role as Ripley (alongside most of the original cast) for the video game Alien: Isolation, in two DLCs set during the events of Alien.

For her performance in Alien, Weaver was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Leading Newcomer and a Saturn Award for Best Actress.

Although her performance had already been acclaimed in the first film, Aliens gave worldwide recognition to Weaver: she was the second horror actress in history (after Ellen Burstyn for The Exorcist) to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She also received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama, and won the Saturn Award for Best Actress, the first award in her career (except a minor award, the Mystfest Award for Best Actress, won for Half Moon Street).

Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver; October 8, 1949) is an American actress. She is known especially for the lead role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. She is also well known for her roles in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, Gorillas in the Mist, Working Girl, and Avatar.

Her 1986 Academy Award nomination for Aliens is considered as a landmark in the recognition of science fiction, action, and horror genres, as well as a major step in challenging the gender role in cinema. Weaver progressively received fame for her numerous contributions to the science fiction film history (including minor roles in successful works such as Futurama, WALL-E, Paul and The Cabin in the Woods) and gained the nickname of “The Sci-Fi Queen”. She also played the lead role as Secretary of State Elaine Barrish on USA Network’s Political Animals miniseries.

Weaver has been nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actress for Aliens and Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, and Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl. She also won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Ice Storm, and Saturn Awards for Aliens and Avatar. She also earned Emmy Award, Drama Desk Award and Tony Award nominations. She has been nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards and won both Best Actress in Drama and Best Supporting Actress in 1988 for Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl, becoming the first person ever to have won two acting Golden Globe Awards in the same year.

Near mint condition.