My high point at San Diego Comic-Con this year was seeing the Aliens 30th Anniversary panel. Aliens turned 30 on July 18 and the panel included Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Michael Biehn, James Cameron (the director), and Gale Anne Hurd (the film’s producer). I was so touched by how kindly and warmly Michael Biehn and Sigourney Weaver spoke about each other. Their support of each other in person got me thinking about how Biehn’s character, and his work in another film, Terminator, influenced my own adoration of the supportive male hero.
Spoilers for Terminator and Aliens ahead.
Biehn and Cameron first worked together on The Terminator. The Terminator was a 1980’s action film, and was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s breakout role in a genre typified by enormous amounts of testosterone. But Terminator had an unusual number of women working behind the scenes, including Producer Gale Anne Hurd (who also contributed to the script), Assistant Director Betsy Macgruder, Assistant Editor Lorna Anderson, and several women in costuming, sound editing, and camera and grip operation.
The story is ostensibly a time travel/science fiction story, but the plotting and pacing come from the slasher movie genre, as an implacable, invincible, and almost silent killer murders victim after victim in an obsessive quest to kill poor Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton. Sarah is introduced as the victim of her crappy boyfriend, of the mean customers in the diner where she works, and of the robotic serial killer who wants her dead (frankly, I’d rather deal with The Terminator, famously played by Arnold, than the boyfriend or the diner customers, who are AWFUL). Sarah is so helpless that initially Reese, the time traveler sent to save her (played by Michael Biehn) has to literally drag her around. So the story is clearly set up to deliver a woman who is going to be saved by a man.
Ultimately, however, the actual action hero of the story is Sarah. It’s Sarah who yanks an injured Reese off the pavement, yelling, “On your feet, soldier,” and drags him to the next hiding place. He dies trying to save her, but she’s the one who kills The Terminator. It’s significant that the photo that Reese falls in love with shows the “after” Sarah – the one who can make a field dressing and a pipe bomb and who is not deterred by pesky things like thermonuclear war.
Sarah is unusual as a Final Girl in the sense that at the end of The Terminator, she is portrayed as sad, but strong. Her experience has not killed her nor entirely decimated her emotional stability. She is calm and confident. In the sequel, she’s lost a lot of that stability, but in this post I’m dealing with the movies as purely stand alone entities, and at the end of Terminator, Sarah is grieving but emotionally stable.
It turns out that Reese’s role all along was to prepare her for the future and then vanish, so that she can be the hero. He’s not the protagonist – he’s the supporting character. He’s fridged so that Sarah carry on and the timeline can continue. He teaches her how to make bombs, he tells her about the future, and, oh, yeah, as a result of their romance he leaves her with a baby to protect. (The Terminator has a lot of feminist elements, but it’s pretty messy too, since Sarah’s entire value lies in the fact that she is going to give birth to a dude.)
Aliens once again featured Michael Biehn as a tough guy who supports an even tougher woman, and that story does a better job with that task.
When Aliens begins, Ripley is traumatized by her experience in Alien and betrayed by the same company that should be helping her. Ripley’s role with the Colonial Marines in Aliens is described by one of them thusly: “She’s some kind of consultant – apparently she saw an alien once.” The Marines see Ripley as a stupid, helpless civilian that they will have to protect, and Ripley, who insists “I’m not a soldier” and “I wouldn’t be any good to you” doesn’t have much confidence in herself either.
Hicks, on the other hand, is all confidence, but unlike the other Marines he does not bluster. Hicks is friendly and funny, but quiet. He eats when there is food and sleeps when there is downtime. He is the only Marine to actually ask for more information about the situation he is walking into and he takes tremendous delight in Ripley’s handling of the cargo loader. Throughout the movie, Hicks does emotional labor – he is attentive to Ripley’s emotional state, he makes sure Newt can see the blueprints on the table, and he keeps Hudson and Vasquez focused.
In one scene, Hicks realizes that the most practical and efficient thing to do with Ripley is give her more tools – so he teaches her to use a gun. While Hicks and Ripley clearly have some chemistry, and they are in close quarters during the gun demo, the scene is pretty unsexualized. Hicks does not wrap both of his manly arms around her as he demonstrates weapons use. He is clearly trying to respect her space as much as possible while making enough contact to get the job done.
When he hands her a tracking wristband, he defuses the emotional tension with a joke, “It doesn’t mean we’re engaged or anything.” He obviously likes and respects Ripley, and while there are hints of attraction, he’s not using this moment as an excuse to feel her up or to flirt.
He’s just trying to give her more tools, and he clearly loves it that she can, as she puts it, “take care of myself.” “Yeah, I noticed,” he says, looking absolutely delighted. Then he shows her how to use the grenade launcher.
This is not a guy who finds a competent woman to be threatening.
In an echo of the “On your feet, soldier” moment from Terminator, Hicks has one scene in which he drags Ripley down a hall (she’s distraught over losing Newt, the child she promised to protect). But mere moments later, when he’s wounded by acid, Hicks and Ripley switch roles and she half drags, half carries him to safety.
In both cases, who is supporting whom is about character, but not specifically about gender. Like Reese and Sarah, Hicks’ role in Aliens isn’t to save the day, but to support Ripley so that she can save the day.
I’m not trying to hold James Cameron up as a paragon of feminism – while he was a writer on both movies, many of his films have deeply sexist elements. However, I do want to point to The Terminator and Aliens as films that are specifically feminist not only because women kick ass, but because the role of the romantic hero is to support and encourage them while they do it. The male hero is essentially telling an audience who may not have seen much of this sort of dynamic before: “See this woman kicking ass? This is great. You can like this.” The films are also flipping a common script, and making the male hero into a supporting character. They are capable, they are smart, they are strong and skilled, but they are not the main event, and that doesn’t bother them, even a little bit.
I’m very grateful to the characters of Reese and Hicks for modeling relationships between men and women that defy alpha male norms. Both characters are drawn to women not in spite of their emotional and physical capabilities, but because of them. These characters were the first ones that I remember who were willing to let women lead (in Reese’s case, it’s not so much that he wants Sarah to lead or not lead – it’s more that he, well, blows himself up, but the sense of respect is there). In so many of the movie I grew up with, the strong-willed women who were not content to be sidekicks were villains. In Terminator and Aliens, strong-willed women are celebrated. Biehn’s portrayal of Reese and of Hicks shows a warmth and confidence that helped me believe that you could be tough in every sense of the word and still be loved. This changed my perception of what a woman could aspire to, and it had a big influence on what I thought of as a healthy romance in the sense that Reese and Sarah, and Hicks and Ripley, truly admire and respect each other (and make each other laugh despite grim circumstances).
Hicks and Reese may look like alpha heroes, and they may have the abilities of alpha heroes, but they have no problem playing a supporting role to women. The character of Reese, who is the leader for most of The Terminator, laid the groundwork for the character of Hicks, who welcomes Ripley’s leadership early on. Both characters possess the incredibly sexy qualities of a sense of humor, empathy and emotional intelligence, and the ability to protect the people around them. But even sexier than their ability to protect others is their willingness to help other people protect themselves, and their respect for people who are smart and competent, regardless of gender.
What about you? Are there any characters or relationships in action movies that have inspired you, too?
Thank you so much for this article, it’s exactly on point for how much I love Aliens.
I’m putting in a plug for ‘True Lies.’ I may be remembering it more fondly than it deserves, but it hit some really fun romantic comedy moments with Arnie’s character setting up a seductive adventure for Jamie Lee Curtis’s character, and they had such a fun partnership by the end.
I loved this article – I absolutely love these 2 films. I was 12 when Terminator came out and fell head over heals in love with Michael Biehn – and it only got worse when Aliens came out. I think he and John Cusack laid the foundation for my lasting love of the beta-male 🙂
Fantastic article! I enjoyed reading every word of it. You perfectly articulated my love of both of these movies and of Michael Biehn. I was always disappointed he didn’t have a bigger career. He is so moving in Terminator- I must have watched his scenes with Linda Hamilton a thousand times on the old VHS tape I made of Terminator when it finally aired on cable all those years ago. I don’t think there is a man alive who watched those movies and didn’t think he was “manly” and great in both those parts all while he was being a fantastic and supportive partner to the main female character.
To say I was disappointed when they killed his and Newt’s characters off screen in Alien 3 before it even began is a huge understatement. I know Cameron gets a lot of flack but he’s given women in general a lot better roles than a host of other writer/directors have. Even Titanic is all about Rose coming into her own. Jack is again the tragic male character that helps her understand her own strength and potential.
I loved Michael Biehn back in the day! I used to joke that Terminator was really all about the romance rather than the killer robot. (I even have the novelization of the movie!) Another favorite of the Cameron/Biehn collaborations is Navy Seals, where he’s the responsible one and the quiet leader where the team members tend to be crazy/macho.
I talking to a film professor from UCBerkeley when Aliens came out who noticed that his girlfriend and the women he knew loved Aliens while the men, not so much.
I told him he had the wrong sex organs to really like it and that the whole movie appealed on a gut level to women, to their maternal instincts. The confrontation between the Alien and Human females is all about protecting their young. The females stood up, grew stronger and fought. When I saw it I noticed the women in the audience cheered at that scene and were really into it.
I don’t know if he ever wrote the paper he talked about on gender roles in Alien and Aliens but he seemed much more aware after our chat.
Joy K – I think women are thrilled by how they are represented in Aliens, but I don’t think that gender is determined by sex organs, I don’t think that all women experience the same levels of maternal instinct, and I know form experience that a ton of men love Aliens, including my husband, my guy friends, and several thousand dudes at Comic Con. In my experience, what’s exciting for women is the idea that they get to be the action star, something we had never seen on such a scale in a mainstream Hollywood movie before.
Thanks so much for this! This article could be my journal entry. Aliens and Terminator are two of my favorite films of all time, was practically raised on them.
In one of Kresley Cole’s books (not sure I can remember which one)–her heroine has the motto WWRD–What Would Ripley Do? –I want a bracelet with that!
Oops! I just realized I was mistaken about Cameron’s involvement with Navy Seals. I think it was the cast that made me attribute it to him since it includes some of his standbys (Biehn, Paxton, Rossovich). Anyway, it was another of the movies where I swooned over Michael Biehn.
Right off hand I would agree about “True Lies” and also throw “The Peacemaker” in there. It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s got a strong female lead who is actually calling the shots, who doesn’t get inappropriately swoony over her swoon-worthy co-star, and who, after the requisite skirmishes, is calling (if not all, at least many of) the shots in the ensuing mayhem, AND who is supported with only token snark by said swoon-worthy co-star. 🙂
One other thing I like about “The Peacemaker” is that Kidman’s character is clearly horrified by violence and by Clooney’s character’s capacity for violence, but she doesn’t let it scare her in the context of their work together. She is never afraid of HIM and is never in doubt that he’s on her team.
OMG I love this so hard!!!!! Thank you. Just *sniff* thank you.
Meeeeeeemories….. like the corners of my mind….
I love this article, it’s great to hear so many other people love the movies and Biehn’s roles in particular as much as I do.I still have a crush on both Hicks and Reece, and fan girl whenever I watch the movies.
Yep, I also had a serious crush on Michael Biehn back in the day. 🙂
The second Terminator movie wasn’t bad, but I have to pretend anything beyond that one doesn’t exist. Same with Aliens–the franchise ended there as far as I’m concerned.
Ellen Ripley is probably the most iconic example of a woman character originally written as a man. I don’t think they changed anything in Alien to accommodate the change in casting. It’s kind of sad and wonderful at the same time.
What a great, insightful article! I, too, had a big crush on Michael Biehn after Terminator (even Cameron says this is a love story, not an action movie), and I got to meet him at a sci-fi convention years ago. Got a photo with him (and Lance Henderikson) and a hug. ::Swoon::
Love The Terminater! Haven’t actually seen Aliens( that I can remember).
While not necessarily a story involving a beta hero or an action movie, but African Queen is excellent movie with a feminine, but capable female chracter and a male lead who throughly supports his heroine.
Yes! I don’t know that I would necessarily call these characters “betas” (whatever that means to anyone) – I think you could write these stories from their POV and they would be pretty traditional male hero figures. I think what makes them unique is that they are so competent and confident in their own masculinity that they are approving of – even, as you say, delighted by – *female* competence and confidence.
This is one of my favorite dynamics of all time, but it’s pretty thin on the ground. ROMANCING THE STONE is a very different type of movie, with very different characters, but I think it has some of these elements, emotionally. In books, SEIZE THE FIRE by Laura Kinsale reminds me a bit of this – the heroine is initially very silly and needs to be taken care of, but the hyper-competent hero, once she begins to exhibit competence of her own, likes it and approves of it.
I think part of why this dynamic is rare is that it requires a really good female character. Quite often I find that when people say “strong female character” they mean a weirdly awful cardboard cutout. They don’t actually mean someone like Ripley, who is a whole person, a person who is also female. So I’ve seen other things that attempt to replicate it, but I think it often fails, people write awful Strong Female Characters who march around blustering, swearing, and browbeating (how else do you know that they’re strong?) and the whole thing doesn’t work.
I’d agree that THE PEACEMAKER has some of this. The upcoming scifi film ARRIVAL (based on the great Ted Chiang novella “Story of Your Life”) features an ace linguist (Amy Adams) and Jeremy Renner in glasses, negotiating first contact with aliens. The trailer gave me some “Oooooooh interesting lady and her competent male sidekick” feels.
My best friend and I stole a copy of ‘Terminator’ from her older teenage brothers, and we wore out the video tape rewinding the bit where Reese says ‘I came across time for you, Sarah. I love you. I always have.’ As an adult, I tried to explain how that line ‘I came across time for you’ utterly obsessed a pair of eleven year old girls to my husband, who just killed himself laughing because all he remembered from his illicit viewing as a kid was Sarah’s boobs in the scene immediately following. But when I was a kid, this was utterly heady stuff, comparable to Rutger Hauer howling in despair in the snow because he can’t touch his love.
@Tam: Same with wearing out that scene on the tape! Haha. There’s a scene in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (the one with Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder) where Dracula tells Mina that he’s crossed oceans of time for her–I love that short scene even tho I dislike most of the rest of the movie.
@AndreaD I wonder if you are thinking about The Abyss? Another James Cameron movie where Michael Biehn actually plays the antogonist? It is set almost entirely on an undersea oil rig stranded due to a storm and investigating what may or may not be an alien intelligence or hostile Russian ship — Biehn plays a navy seal who slowly loses his shit as events unfold. I loved that one, and freely admit I still do, although no question it has its issues. But I think Carrie hits the nail on the head — unusual back then (I was a college freshman when The Terminator came out) to see women in action movies doing what the women in his movies are doing. (And all credit to Ridley Scott for leading the way with Alien). And in the Abyss and in Aliens this includes women of color who actually do kickass and heroic stuff — even more unusual in the 80s (or even now, sadly). Anyway, thanks for this great post! I was huge Biehn fan and love those movies, and love seeing so many others who feel the same way!
@Mochabean, I did like The Abyss as well, though I was sad to see Biehn in a less heroic role. 🙂 The movie I was thinking of really was Navy Seals, but Cameron wasn’t a producer or director as I mistakenly thought he was. Biehn, Bill Paxton, Rick Rossovich, Dennis Haysbert, and Charlie Sheen are part of a team of Seals, and Biehn plays the leader with a similar quiet confidence and sense of responsibility as in some of his other roles. Sheen was really the star of the movie, but Michael Biehn was the draw for me. 😉
I love me some Reese and Hicks!
As to question, I’ve found that Evy from The Mummy is quite an unconventional female action lead. She’s not physically strong per se in the first movie, her strength is her intelligence and deep knowledge of Ancient Egypt. She longs to be in the field, she’s reckless, her actions actually cause the major conflict, but even in terrifying circumstances she never backs down from the action, wanting to find solutions, and using what skills she has to massively help save the day. She proves you don’t need to be super physically capable to be a hero.