"We are trained to handle situations like this."
But you're not though are you Gorman?
You walk into Ripleys apartment and say "We're off to visit that rock you were on because the transmitters is down , and just in case your wild story about the first ever evidence of alien life being a nursery of 100s of huge killing machines with acid for blood turns out to be true - dont worry - We are trained to handle situations like this."
The Marines believe they can go toe to toe with any enemy.
Yes, but that's Gorman for you, he's a unique style of stupid, as Vasquez points out when they die together.
In fact, he should be called Gormless instead.
He was not particularly stupid, nor was he particularly bright. But he was indecisive and could not lead in a crises, which is of kind an important part of being an officer.
shareI'm still shocked they sent an el tee to be in charge for this particular bug hunt. Should've been at least a Major.
shareI always felt that these creatures were not the first encounter with alien life in the universe of the movie, since Hudson called it "just another bug hunt" or similar, and the casualness of the lady at the hearing mentioning no indigenous life was there.
The marines therefore could have had experience with hostile alien life before and were confident they could handle it.
That is a big question (the first encounter or not)
The lady in the inquisition always made me think it was first time when she said something like
"...and found something never seen in 430 surveyed worlds" , but i guess she could mean a huge acid killer alien as opposed to some other type.
then again maybe "just another bug hunt" means they'd been sent out before and found absolute zero no contact, hence the confidence.
Ahhhhhhhhh i applaude thee. I never thought of it like that, but it would actually make sense that the bug hunt would just be a hunt that turned out to be nothing. Would explain why the marines were so discouraged about the idea.
shareThe bug hunt line says it all, and not just earth animal infestations because actual alien life is made known and they act like theyve been through it before.
Probably large space rat infestations in colonies and industrial areas owned by the company. Not deadly but could be dangerous to untrained unarmed personnel or non threatening herbivore types.
Then they come across the most deadly life form in the galaxy and they are not ready for it.
Or as someone said above, somebodies seen something, they arrive and dont find anything.
I assumed with the 'another bug hunt' line was that Weyland-Yutani had been directing the USCM to scour the known galaxy for the apparent 'Xenomorph' for years leading up to the events of LV-426 in Aliens. These marines had been through this before, though without actually encountering the Xenomorph until this film.
shareStupidest line was when Hudson cries and points to Newt: "why don't you put her in charge!!!"
Obviously, you would never put a young girl with no prior military training nor formal leadership education in charge of bunch of marines and older civilians.
yeah but Hudson isn't actually suggesting they put her in charge, therefore it doesn't qualify as stupidest line.
shareI agree, Gorman was the type of military man that was promoted above his abilities.
He was inexperienced, green and froze when stumped instead of thinking on his feet.
Things may change in the future, but most officers are created of college graduates who undergo years of part-time training like ROTC or intense full-time training (OCS). Some are prior enlisted. Given this came out mid-80s, I've always presumed Gorman had zero prior enlisted experience and was basically a relatively new, inexperienced officer. So despite having only one combat drop (and lots of simulated ones), everyone has to start somewhere.
share