Did Aliens inspire Jaws The Revenge?

Alien (1979) was famously pitched as Jaws in space, but its follow up, James Cameron's Aliens (1986) may have helped influence the third Jaws sequel.

It was a monster movie where its heroine, named Ellen, faced off against an unstoppable force with plenty of teeth in unfamiliar surroundings. Just like Jaws the Revenge!

And the - slightly dubious - links continue.

Fake flashbacks where the lead actress dies

In Aliens, Ripley has a chestburster erupt from within and in Jaws the Revenge Ellen Brody is swimming when she is attacked by a shark. Both characters awake from their nightmares.

Girls in danger

In Aliens, Newt has several close encounters with the Xenomorph, whilst in Jaws the Revenge, Ellen's granddaughter Thea is almost attacked whilst riding on a banana boat.

Help from H

We'll also throw in that Ellen (Ripley) is helped by a man called Hicks, whilst coming to the rescue of Ellen (Brody) is Hoagie. And they are both played by actors called Michael.

Tagline

If Alien was a haunted house movie in space then Aliens was akin to Vietnam in space, which meant that it more than earned its iconic tagine of 'This time it's war.'

It's hard not to think that the marketing department behind Jaws the Revenge's tagline of 'This time it's personal' weren't influenced by Aliens, complete with its female lead.

And who wouldn't want to follow in that box office slipstream. Perhaps though they should have gone with 'This time it's roar.'

Either way, there is no denying that Jaws the Revenge and Aliens both share strong female leads, something which wasn’t commonplace in Hollywood at the time.

The one thing that the two films don’t share is that Aliens is not a Christmas movie, and we all know that Jaws the Revenge is.

Words by Dean Newman

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