The director who inspired a “generation” of sci-fi fans, according to James Cameron
It’s fair to say that the world of cinematic science fiction would be missing some of its greatest entries if it weren’t for the works of James Cameron. After all, Cameron has handled some of the greatest science fiction movies of all time, which set him on his way to directing Titanic.
After delivering the 1978 short film Xenogenesis and 1982’s feature-length Piranha II: The Spawning, Cameron set about directing one of the best and most important sci-fi films ever made in the shape of 1984’s The Terminator, which spawned a seriously significant franchise and announced the filmmaker as a science fiction great.
Cameron’s next film also contributed to a huge science fiction franchise. 1986’s Aliens took the claustrophobic horror of Ridley Scott’s 1979 original Alien and doused it in an unbridled sense of gun-toting action. It ended up being a film that split the Alien fandom down the middle, with some preferring Scott’s original and others enjoying the new direction Cameron took the narrative in.
In an interview with Vulture, Cameron admitted that the Alien franchise, which has had several entries, some praised, some maligned, has “kind of wandered all over the map”. He then explained the importance of Scott’s original and the lasting impression that the English director had on his fellow filmmakers.
“Ridley did the first film, and he inspired an entire generation of filmmakers and science-fiction fans with that one movie, and there have been so many films that stylistically have derived from it, including my own Aliens, which was the legitimate sequel and, I think, the proper heir to his film,” Cameron noted.
The Titanic and Avatar director went on to explain that he had largely made Aliens as a “fanboy” of Scott and that he wanted to “honour” the legacy of the original movie while also saying “what I needed to say”. However, it’s also clear that Scott was somewhat annoyed that 20th Century Fox had given the sequel to Alien to Cameron, even though he had just delivered the excellent The Terminator.
According to Scott, the Gladiator and Black Hawk Down filmmaker had been trying to develop a sequel movie anyway, but when Cameron called him up to inform him that he would be taking on Aliens, Scott couldn’t help but be annoyed, and he once told Deadline, “I was pissed. I wouldn’t tell that to Jim, but I think I was hurt. I knew I’d done something very special, a one-off, really.”
Despite Scott’s irritation, Cameron went ahead and delivered an important entry in the Alien franchise, and he was always sure to give his respects to Scott whenever he could, seeing as he had indeed inspired so many science fiction directors and fans with his visionary effort that combined sci-fi with tense horror.
Since Aliens, it’s fair to say that the franchise has stumbled somewhat, although Scott’s most recent efforts, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, have certainly been better than David Fincher’s Alien 3 and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection. Cameron admitted, “I don’t think it’s worked out terribly well.”
Cameron signed off his thoughts and admiration for Scott by noting, “I will stand in line for any Ridley Scott movie, even a not-so-great one because he is such an artist, he’s such a filmmaker. I always learn from him. And what he does with going back to his own franchise would be fascinating.”
