Wuh… how did you know that? Have we met?
When the mech-suits were introduced in Avatar, I was hoping for a scene where Sigourney Weaver walks up to a bad guy and says "Get away from here you bastard!"
In the military, they also make sure things are ‘squared-away,’ meaning ‘organized and ready to go.’ So when the pilot says “…5x5,” she’s saying that everything looks good, and she’s sqared-up for the landing. 
Nah, the 5x5 thing is definitely radio terminology, as stated above.
The finger to the eye thing reminds me of a joke, if I can toss it in after 84 posts.
Guy goes to see the gorilla in the zoo and notices the big male is mimicking everything he’s doing. Jumps up and down; the gorilla jumps up and down. Holds his arms ape style; gorilla does too. Grabs his head and howls; gorilla grabs his head and hoots. Guy pulls one eyelid down… and the gorilla comes through the fence and beats the guy to a pulp.
In the hospital, a zookeeper explains to him that pulling the eyelid down is gorilla for “fuck you,” so of course the gorilla got mad.
When the guy heals, he goes back to the gorilla cage with a Louisville slugger and a foam bat. He throws the real bat into the cage and gets the big male’s attention. He jumps up and down; the gorilla jumps up and down. He grabs his head; the gorilla grabs his head. He picks up the bat and waves it around; the gorilla picks up his bat and waves it around. He bashes himself in the head as hard as he can, several times, with the foam bat.
The gorilla looks at his bat, holds it up… and pulls down his eyelid with his finger.
This bears repeating. IIRC in the first movie she figured out the Nostromo was sent to the planet, not to check out a distress beacon, but to actually pick up some samples of the critters. Mother knew it, and Ash the AI knew it (and tried to kill her when she found out). Her distrust of the company wasn’t simply being suspicious of its intentions, but her knowledge it was purely evil and thoroughly ignoroant of what it was dealing with. She had to know, also, that she’d get disappeared sooner or later if she stuck around.
Also (not to beat up on kaylasdad99 too much) Ripley’s got balls the size of churchbells. You don’t really see too much of that in the first movie until the very end when she keeps it together just enough to get the bug out of her escape pod, and even then she is pretty scared. But who wouldn’t be? She was just a freighter captain, not Rambo. Still her job as ship’s captain indicates she’s good on her feet. In Aliens she holds her water better than the marines–and she still loves cats and children. And yeah, another vote for the extended cut rather than the standard release–it highlights how horrifying The Company really is.
beat me to the punch, Amateur.
i concur.
affirmative!
If you two were going for a quick jab with that punch, your reflexes register somewhere down around “Sloth on Valium” levels–the thread’s over two years old. 
Ah, I see we have a fellow Moar Dakkaafficianado.
Yes. Fully automated sentry guns need no ulterior justification.
It drifted through the core forums, it’s really just blind luck that it was opened at all.
Just a minor nit to pick here, The Great Sun Jester, I’m pretty sure in the first movie, Dallas was the Captain and Ripley was the XO. (Second in command.) You’ll notice several times they’re trying to decide what to do next and they all argue about what’s best, but at the end of each discussion, it’s up to Dallas to make the decision. Until he goes into the air vents anyway. No argument about the size of Ripley’s balls. 
Well played.
Nor here, either, but Dallas was the Nostromo’s CO, Kane was XO, and Ripley’s title (or rank) was Warrant Officer. She took command when Dallas had disappeared and Kane had a particularly bad tummy ache.
ok…it’s been a while. But I do remember being impressed with ripley’s balls, even when much more of her was on display.
We are reaching the point where you would be better off just watching the movie to understand what people are talking about. The story is reasonably logical and coherent and will answer all your questions.
The movie is also worth watching because it is simply an excellent movie, one of the best of its kind ever made. I would suggest not watching the “extended version,” which like most such versions, just demonstrates why the deleted scenes were deleted. The theatrical version is far better paced.
It has also been claimed that Aliens is the best film adaptation of Starship Troopers anyone has made (although Starship Troopers: Invasion, which came out last year, is probably a bit better, it was also direct-to-DVD)
+11111111
The first question has already been explained. As to the second one - “Look into my eye. Does it look like I give a shit?”
Welcome to the Straight Dope. The thread you replied to was started 7 years ago and the answers to the second one do not differ much from your interpretation. No big deal, but it’s customary not to resurrect threads unless you have something truly new and different to contribute to an unresolved discussion.
But, as long as we’re here…
Harkins Theatres is showing Aliens on the Big Screen next Tuesday, 10/9/18.
I’ll be there.