A new fan-edit trailer turns the classic Aliens into a pulse-pounding modern-day blockbuster. James Cameron famously pitched his Alien sequel by writing “Aliens” on a white-board and turning the “s” into a dollar sign. The cheeky pitch indeed proved prophetic as the film went on to gross $131-183 million worldwide on a budget of $18 million.

Cameron’s Aliens is of course now considered one of the great movie sequels of all-time. Starring Sigourney Weaver, the film brings back Ripley, the sole survivor of the space disaster in Ridley Scott’s original Alien. But rather than focus on pulse-pounding horror like Scott, Cameron elected to go the action-movie route with Aliens, pitting Ripley and a group of space marines against not just one but a whole swarm of unstoppable Xenomorphs.

Cameron's action-packed and militaristic Aliens is now over 35 years old but still holds up incredibly well. To show how at-home the 1986 classic would be in the world of modern-day blockbusters, YouTube user Michael Edwards has posted a new trailer edit done in the style of a 2022 clip. See the video in the space below:


Aliens of course popularized many sci-fi tropes that remain popular to this day, especially the idea of a group of bad-ass space soldiers doing battle against alien threats. This being the case, it’s probably not a surprise that footage and audio clips from the film can so readily be edited into a trailer that feels like it could have been made for a 2022 movie. The only thing that really gives away Aliens as an older movie is the lack of slick CGI.

Older movie though Aliens may be, the Alien franchise obviously has continued on into recent times, with the last film Alien: Covenant releasing in 2017. But though there have been several Alien films made since 1986, most fan debate over the best title in the long-lived series still boils things down to a battle between the original 1979 film and Cameron’s Aliens. The films are different stylistically of course, with Alien being more of a classic horror film and Aliens a much more over-the-top action movie. Both approaches are clearly suited to the material, and debate over which is better really comes down to personal preference. What isn’t debatable is that both films still hold up many decades after their initial release. The above new fan-made trailer only proves once again that Aliens possesses a timeless quality, with its story of cocky space soldiers being put in their place by unrelenting extra-terrestrial enemies, and the day having to be saved by a lone woman who proves just as unrelenting as the aliens themselves.