Claim: Aliens (film) stars Sigourney Weaver as the protagonist, Ellen Ripley.

Aliens is a 1986 American science fiction horror film written and directed by James Cameron , produced by 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 in the Alien franchise . The film follows Weaver 's character Ellen Ripley as she returns to the moon where her crew encountered the hostile Alien creature , this time accompanied by a unit of space marines .   Gordon Carroll , David Giler , and Walter Hill of Brandywine Productions , who produced the first film and its later sequels , served as executive producers on Aliens . They were 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 ; when that film became a hit in 1984 , Fox greenlit Aliens with Cameron as director and a budget of approximately . 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 grossed worldwide . It 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 considered one of the best films in its genre .   A sequel Alien 3 was released in 1992 , with Sigourney Weaver reprising her role as Ellen Ripley and Lance Henriksen as Bishop in the film .