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In 2019, characters as resilient as Ellen Ripley, Tyler Durden and John McClane were faced with an enemy whose greed and ruthlessness knew no bounds. Its name? The Walt Disney Company.
When Disney purchased 20th Century Fox for $71.3 billion, most commentators focused on the fact that the merger would gain the company access to long-elusive Marvel properties like X-Men and Fantastic Four. But a 2019 Vulture article revealed a grim reality the drew no cheers: Disney was consigning older Fox films to its dreaded vault, making it difficult and/or impossible for them to be shown in repertory theaters.
One Portland theater, however, has found a way into the vault. On May 29, the Hollywood Theatre will screen Aliens, James Cameron’s legendary 1986 sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror classic Alien (both of which star Sigourney Weaver as interstellar ass-kicker Ellen Ripley).
Just a few years ago, an Aliens screening in Portland would have been humdrum news. For a while, the film played so often throughout the city the word of yet another screening could inspire groans: Couldn’t Portlanders be bothered to watch anything else?
Now, however, the chance to see Ripley battle the Alien Queen with a P-5000 Powered Work Loader on the big screen qualifies as a cinematic event. And to sweeten the deal, the Hollywood is showing another scorchingly good Cameron sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), on the same day (as well as 1991′s eternally awesome Point Break, which was directed by Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow, who was once married to Cameron).
Admittedly, getting Aliens out of the vault was probably easier for the Hollywood than it would be for other theaters. For-profit theaters are the main target of the vault policy, and the Hollywood is a nonprofit. But knowing Disney, this may be your last chance to see the film on the big screen for a while.
Aliens screens at 9:30 pm on Sunday, May 29. Tickets, which range from $8-$10, are available at hollywoodtheatre.org.