It's interesting seeing the relationships between the really
influential sci-fi stuff. I haven't studied this, but you can see the lines of
thought between Aliens (1986) and Starcraft (1998); the parasitic,
human-corrupting Zerg are a lot like the Aliens, and several of the quotes of
the dropship pilot ("Heads up--we're in for some chop", "In the
pipe, five-by-five", appear in Starcraft.
You can also see the loose, undisciplined behavior of the Aliens Marines in the Marines of Starcraft, who likewise cover their armor with graffiti and grumble
"How do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?", another quote from Aliens. So too the tiny, red “BAR” sign
in the Aliens colonists’ base, which
is replicated dozens of times in Terran standard scenery. And the iconic shot
of the Alien Queen advancing down the hallway towards the elevators is mirrored
in the cutscene battle aboard the Terran science vessel, as is the whole close,
frantic, chaotic fight against the Zerg in that scene.
Going the other way, I strongly suspect that James Cameron
and friends read Starship Troopers
(1959). Hudson's reference to knives and sharp sticks in his weapons monologue
to Ripley echoes Sergeant Zim's speech between knife-throwing sessions, and
Hicks falling asleep as the dropship descends through LV-426's atmosphere
speaks to Juan Rico's habit of falling asleep "if you actually had twenty
minutes of your very own... We were always several weeks minus on sleep." Rico
even sleeps standing up during parade and trains himself to wake only when he
has to move. Hudson also uses the Starship
Troopers slang “buy it” to refer to death, AND the Marines ask if this job
is “another bug hunt”, which is how Starship
Troopers’ troopers call the fight against the “Pseudo-Arachnids”.
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