It changed genres, reinvented its lead character and added a cadre of supporting characters that injected humor and thrills, while creating a formula for those sorts of figures in Cameron films to come.
In short, it was a template for the greatest film that James Cameron would ever make.
Aliens took a well-respected film and made its world even bigger and better.
Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley became the legendary badass that the world currently sees her as, with a second chapter that took what started as a haunted house adventure in space, and turned it into an all-out, action-packed war movie.