Extremely Difficult Trivia About "Predator" (1987)

      All of this brutally hot weather lately has made me think of folks in another brutally hot situation--the characters in the 1987 sci-fi/action movie "Predator."  Like a lot of viewers, I adore this film--the actors are perfectly cast, the action scenes are great, and the Predator itself is an imaginative and terrifying villain.  So let's get into some obscure details about it for fun.  As always, questions first, followed by the answers.  And many SPOILERS ahead, obviously.

Questions:

1)    Blain is seen wearing a black t-shirt with a company logo on it.  What is it for?

2)    Of the 6 members of Dutch's team, who is the only one wearing a suit and tie when they get off the helicopter in the beginning?

3)    What type of general is General Phillips?  (As in, how many stars does he have?)

4)    According to Dillon and Phillips, how long ago did the helicopter they're looking for disappear?

5)    According to Dillon and Phillips, who was in this helicopter?

6)    Dillon mentions two places to Dutch in their first conversation.  One is a job that Dutch did, and the other is an assignment that Dutch passed on.  Name them.

7)    What is Dutch's rank?

8)    What song is played on the boombox during the helicopter ride to the assignment?

9)    How many people in Dutch's team accept Blain's offer of chewing tobacco?

10)   What souvenir did both Dillon and Dutch get in 1972, north of the town of Hue?

11)   Which members of the team climb up to the crashed helicopter in the tree?

12)   According to Billy, after he observes the tracks, how many guerillas took away the hostages?

13)   Also according to Billy, how many additional men wearing U.S. Army boots followed the guerillas?

14)   After this, Poncho asks Dutch if he remembers another job, and Dutch says he's trying to forget it.  Which one are they talking about?

15)   How many members of Hopper's team were hung up in trees and skinned?

16)   What is Hopper's first name?

17)   Hopper's team are a group of Green Berets out of where?

18)   What long time, bodybuilding friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger's plays a member of the guerilla camp?

19)   What is the name of Blain's giant machine gun?

20)   Dutch assigns tasks to each person of the team before they engage the guerrilla camp.  Name them.

21)   After the guerrilla camp is dealt with, the team calls for a chopper pickup.  From who, specifically?

22)   When Poncho and Blain are tangling with the guerrilla up a tree, what animal does Blain compare him to?

23)   What is Poncho's reply to Blain's famous line, "I ain't got time to bleed."?

24)   According to air surveillance, how far away, in time and distance, are the other guerrilla groups?

25)   How many pussy jokes does Hawkins tell to Billy?

26)   How many digits are on the Predator's hands?

27)   According to Blain, this jungle makes what country look like Kansas?

28)   What is Mac's rank?

29)   Mac manages to slightly wound the Predator with bullets from Blain's gun.  Where is this wound?

30)   After Dillon calls for an extraction by helicopter, he's denied, and told to proceed to what sector?

31)   While Mac is reminiscing with Blain's corpse, he mentions an incident when a whole platoon of 32 guys got chopped into meat, but just he and Blain walked out, unwounded.  What did Mac call this night?

32)   After Mac kills the pig that gets caught in their booby trap, who mocks him, belittling the size of the animal?

33)   At this point in the movie, how far away is the rendezvous point for the chopper?

34)  Anna mentions that a Predator has killed men in her village other times, in the hottest years.  What does their name for the Predator mean, in English?

35)   Who is the first person to see the Predator "uncloaked" (uncamouflaged)?

36)   Who is the only character we hear two (first and last) names for?

37)   Billy confronts the Predator by waiting for it, armed only with a big blade.  He also cuts himself with it on the chest.  Who is the only other character seen cutting himself with a blade?

38)   We see the Predator examining a collection of skulls.  How many of these are of animals?

39)   And how many of these skulls are human?

40)   True or false?  The Predator is mortally wounded by one of Dutch's traps.

41)   The main characters are shown again in the movie's credits.  Shane Black (who played Hawkins) is shown reading what comic book?

42)   What are the jobs/specialties for each of the 6 members of Dutch's team?

43)   We learn midway through the movie that Dillon was lying to Dutch about the job.  What was actually the military/political situation?

44)   In what two countries is the movie set in?

45)   The actor who played the Predator, Kevin Peter Hall, also played another, human character in this movie.  Who was it?

46)   Whose skulls does the Predator collect?  (Conjectural.)

47)   How many people are killed in this movie?

48)   Why didn't the Predator kill any of the guerrillas?  (Conjectural.)

49)   Is Blain wielding a minigun realistic?

50)   Of the actors playing the 10 major characters (Dutch's eventual group of 8, General Phillips, and the Predator), who among them saw actual combat in a real life war?

Answers:

1)    It's for MTV, the cable television network Music Television.

2)    Mac.

3)    He's a major (2 star) general.  As can be seen by the number of stars on his hat, and uniform.

4)    18 hours ago.

5)    A cabinet minister, and his aide.

6)    Dutch worked in Berlin, but passed on Libya.

7)    He's a major.  They mention this many times.

8)    "Long Tall Sally," the version performed by Little Richard.

9)    None, much to Blain's vocal disdain.

10)   Cigarette lighters.

11)   Poncho and Dillon.

12)   12.

13)   6.

14)   Afghanistan.

15)   3.

16)   In what may be a mistake, Dutch says it's "Jim," but the man's dog tags read "C.E. Hopper."  Perhaps it was a nickname.

17)   Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

18)   Sven-Ole Thorsen plays a Soviet military advisor.

19)   Old Painless.

20)   Mac and Blain are to take out the machine gun nest, Billy and Poncho are to take care of the guard, Hawkins and Dillon are backup, and Dutch will handle the fuel dump.

21)   Connor.

22)   He's dug in like an Alabama tick.

23)   "Oh, okay.  You got time to duck?"

24)   About 1-2 miles, and a half hour away.

25)   2.  The first one bombs, but Billy is amused by the 2nd one.

26)   Just like ours--4 fingers and a thumb.  Albeit with longer nails, or claws.

27)   Cambodia.

28)   He's a sergeant, 2nd in command.

29)   On the Predator's left leg, somewhere around its knee.

30)   3,000.

31)   A Number 10 night.

32)   Poncho.

33)   10-12 miles away.

34)   "The demon who makes trophies of men."

35)   Dillon.

36)   Poncho Ramirez.  The novelization, comics, etc., provide first and last names for all the characters, but they're not mentioned in the film, or listed in the credits except for Poncho.

37)   Mac, presumably accidently, as he's distracted while dry shaving his face.

38)   We see 5, arranged in the netting around its torso.

39)   3.

40)   False.  Technically it bypasses the actual trap, but is killed by the trap's counterweight hanging log falling on it.

41)   It's a "Sgt. Rock" comic, #408 from February of 1986, to be exact.

42)   Dutch is the commanding officer, Mac is 2nd in command/machine gunner.  Blain is the heavy gunner.  Poncho is the explosives/demolition expert, Hawkins is the radio operator, and Billy is the tracker/scout.  The medic is thought to be either Poncho or Hawkins.

43)   Dillon and the CIA believed that the guerrillas were preparing for an invasion of their neighboring country, aided by Soviet military advisors.  So they sent in CIA operatives to find the main guerrilla camp.  But the CIA agents' helicopter was discovered and destroyed, and the agents were taken prisoner by the guerrillas.  Hopper's team was sent to rescue the prisoners, and probably also to destroy the guerrilla camp, but they were killed by the Predator.  Dutch's team was then sent to do the same task as Hopper's, only they were lied to and told it was a rescue mission of government officials.  (In "Predator 2" this gets retconned a bit.  In that movie Keyes (Gary Busey's character) actually suspected the Predator was in the area, so he and his group set up the entire plan to try to capture it, presumably lying to Dillon and the CIA in turn.)

44)   In the movie they're unidentified, other than being in Central America (Mac notes that the "cabinet minister and his aide" were clearly not Central American.)  However, in the novelization and in the sequels the area they Predator was in was Guatemala.  So the neighboring countries would be either Mexico, Belize, Honduras, or El Salvador.  A writer friend of director McTiernan identified the country as the fictitious "Val Verde," which in turn was used in other movies like "Commando" and "Die Hard 2," but this is not canon.

45)   Hall briefly appears as one of the pilots of the chopper at the end.  He's the tall black guy.

46)   We can be sure that it didn't save those of 3 of the guys from Hopper's team, and Hawkins' skull, since these 4 men were hung in trees with their heads still attached.  Of the others, we know that the Predator stole Blain's body, so maybe he craved Blain's skull.  We see him rip out Billy's skull and spine out, and prepare it, so I think it's safe to assume Billy's skull is retained.  Of the rest, we don't see the Predator take the bodies of Dillon, Mac, or Poncho, although it could have later, offscreen.  One skull has a blackened hole near the top, in the left-center portion.  Which could indicate that this is Mac's, since he appeared to be shot in this area of the head.  Although later his head looks intact when Dillon sees him, but this might be a mistake by the filmmakers.  Poncho was shot in the head as well, but it looked like more in the side.  Finally, it's possible that the Predator took more of his human victim's skulls, but was storing them somewhere else.

47)   The guerrillas/Soviet military advisors apparently killed 5 people--the 2 helicopter pilots, and the 3 CIA agents (Billy says 2 at first, but later adds "a kid" in the aftermath of the guerrilla camp assault.)  The Predator kills the 6 members of Hopper's team, and 6 of Dutch's team (Hawkins, Blain, Mac, Dillion, Billy, and Poncho).  The number of guerrillas killed by Dutch's team is unfortunately undetermined.  Some websites claim a low of 58, others up to a high of 76.

48)   The Predator seems to prefer killing people who are alone, or in small groups.  It only (apparently) attacks Hopper's group of 6, and then Dutch's group of 8.  Maybe the 12 guerrillas and 3 hostages were too many, and the camp itself had dozens more, obviously.  Alternately, maybe the Predator only arrived in the area when Hopper's team arrived, and then hung around and waited in the area, and only decided to stalk Dutch's team when they got there, and didn't really encounter the guerrilla camp until after it followed Dutch's team there.

49)   According to everything I read online, no.  The one he uses, the M134 minigun, is usually mounted on helicopters, and is not picked up and used by a person, even one as big and bulky as Jesse Ventura.  To get it to work for the movie they had to slow it down, and power it using heavy battery packs.  Also, it fires so quickly that even a bodybuilder couldn't carry the weight of all the ammunition required to fire it as much as the characters do.  So it's a cool image, but not really plausible.

50)   It appears that only the least prepossessing guy, Richard Chaves (who played Poncho) did, as he was in the U.S. Army and fought in the Vietnam War.  Jesse Ventura (Blain) was in the U.S. Navy (possibly a Navy Seal?), and served in Vietnam during the war, but didn't see actual combat.  Of the others, Sonny Landham (Billy) served in the U.S. Army, but not in a war, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Dutch) served in the Austrian Army, but again, not in a war or in combat.  Otherwise, Bill Duke (Mac), Carl Weathers (Dillon), Shane Black (Hawkins), R. G. Armstrong (Phillips), Elpidia Carrillo (Anna), and Kevin Peter Hall (the Predator) did not serve in the military.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Turkish Liquor

      About a year and a half ago, in my January 29, 2022 post about Arak Razzouk, I promised/threatened that more articles about anise-flavored boozes were imminent.  And then I got distracted, or forget entirely about this, I guess.  Anyway, here we go.  Today we'll be talking about yeni raki, from the Mey company, or to use their full title, Mey Alkollu Ickiler San VE TIC. A.S.

     The history of this drink, raki, is a bit cloudy.  One website claims that the first reference to it was a 1630 travelogue by the Ottoman Empire explorer Evliya Celebi.  Another source maintains that it's older, saying that in 1326 the second Ottoman sultan Orhan Ghazi gave raki as a gift to Geyikli Baba and his dervish helpers for helping conquer Bursa.  Whenever the true origin is, raki became much more popular in the 1800's.  At this point it was made privately, in Turkish homes.  However, after the modern Republic of Turkey was created in the 20th century, raki began to be made in government operated factories, starting in 1944.  Then, in 2001 the production of raki was privatized, and so more companies began making it.  The Mey company is still arguably the most popular producer of raki, aided by it getting the production rights from the previous Tekel government factory.

     But what is raki, precisely?  First of, the name itself is also convoluted.  Some think that it derives from the Arabic word for sweat ("arak"), as the distilling process was thought by many to resemble sweating.  Others claim that the name comes from the type of grape used as its base, razaki.  Be that as it may, raki is the national drink of Turkey.  Its creation is fairly strict.  First, grapes, or sometimes raisins, are fermented into wine.  Then this wine is distilled, into a powerful (over 90% alcoholic content) alcohol called suma.  Water and then anise are added to the suma, and the combination is distilled a second time, usually in copper containers.  Thus making raki.  (Just to add to the confusion, the folks in Crete make a liquor also called "raki," but this one is completely different, as it's a brandy that doesn't use anise as a flavoring agent.)  Aside from Turkey, people in neighboring Balkan nations and Kazakhstan also make and enjoy raki.

     The company that I'll refer to as Mey for brevity's sake makes gin, liqueur, raki, vodka, and wine.  They also import other kinds of wine, gin, liqueur, whiskey, vodka, and tequila.  There are several different kinds of raki, too, all with descriptive names before "raki."  "Yeni" means "new" in Turkish, and that's the sort I tried.  Kulup means "club," civan means "around," tayfa means "crew," and vefa means "fidelity."  I couldn't find translations of "tekirdag," "izmir," or "altinbas," so perhaps these are place names, or maybe people's names.  Finally, the current head of the Mey business is general manager Levent Komur, and since 2011 Mey is a subsidiary of the giant Diageo company, which also owns the famous liquor brands Guinness, Tanqueray, Baileys, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, J&B, and others.

Mey yeni raki:  Had a clear color, and an anise-y odor.  Pleasant taste.  As with other anise drinks, some folks drink it with water, and/or ice, which cause a milky color called a louche.  I had mine plain, as a shot.  Much better than aguardiente, better than Sambuca, but not as great as Arak Razzouk, to compare it to other anise-flavored liquors.  So a very good anise bite to it, and a significantly better than average alcoholic drink.  If you like anise flavors in general, and also enjoy anise-flavored boozes I would recommend it highly.  But it is quite powerful--mine was 45% alcohol, or 90 proof.  So bear that in mind, and be careful.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Italian Cookies/Biscuits

      It's cookie time again!  Or, to some readers, mostly Europeans, biscuit time once more.  Today's selection comes from the Lago Group S.p.A., specifically, two from their Poker line--the cacao one, and the vaniglia kind.  Or, to English speakers, their chocolate wafers, and their vanilla wafers.

     From what little I could glean from online sources, including the official company website, our story begins in 1968.  Gastone Lago, aided by "his friend and brother Di Dato," started a biscuit laboratory called Elledi in the Italian community of Galliera Veneta.  (Incidentally, "biscuit laboratory" sounds much more elaborate and scientific than just a "bakery factory," so I approve.)  The company first started making wafers in about 1970, and the specific Poker line in about 1980.  Overall, Lago makes the following products:  Wafers, sugar-free cookies/biscuits, covered biscuits/cookies, pastries, shortbread, Italian specialties, snacks, and cakes.  Also, although the official business name became Lago Group S.p.A. at some point, Elledi is still apparently an accepted alternate title.  As far as more business details go, online sources note that the company became public in 1981, which I guess refers to being publicly traded, for stocks and such.  I was interested to learn that Lago is strictly traditional in some ways, and doesn't chase recent health and alternative diet trends.  Their FAQ section notes that while their products are appropriate for vegetarians, they are not vegan--eggs and dairy are used in pretty much everything they make.  They're also not gluten-free--everything they bake uses gluten in the form of wheat.  Which, for me, is becoming so rare to see in a product.  Both for things I write about for this blog, and in general.

Lago Group Pokers, vanilla flavor:  These looked like a typical wafer cookie--outer cookie sections enclosing cream fillings, with the cookie having the traditional wafer cross-hatched pattern.  There were three cookies enclosing 2 cream filling sections, but otherwise, they looked like regular wafers.  About 9 cm. by 2 cm. (about 3.5 inches by .75 inches), with light yellow cookies, and white cream layers.  Texture-wise they were crunchy on the outside, and soft inside.  The taste was like a regular vanilla wafer.  Which is a good thing.  Wafer cookies are hard to mess up, and this one fortunately didn't.

Lago Group Pokers, chocolate flavor:  Same size, shape, and makeup as the previous.  The only difference was that the creamy layers were dark brown instead of white.  The texture was the same, too.  The taste was, once again, pretty similar to other chocolate wafers I've had over the years.  Or, in other words, good.  I liked the vanilla ones a bit more, but these were still more than decent.  I'd recommend both kinds to those that like wafers in general.

     I realize that food science is a real thing, and that scientists often research different food additives, flavors, preservatives, manufacturing methods, etc.  But part of me still can't get past the "biscuit laboratory" description.  I'm picturing a stereotypical 1950's low budget sci-fi movie, wherein a mad scientist invents a biscuit/cookie that is tasty, super-intelligent, and of course, profoundly evil.  I know "The Gingerdead Man" movie series already exists, but surely there is room for more than one "killer pastry" type of flick.  A guy can dream, can't he?

   

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Chicken Rind Snacks

      Back on March 13, 2021, I did a post about chicharrones, which can refer to snacks made from the skin of a variety of animals--pigs, cows, sheep, and chickens.  That one was about the most common kind to me, the pork chicharrones, typically called "pork rinds" here in the U.S.  But, recently in my grocery I saw another take on this, in the form of snacks made from chicken skins.  So, of course I had to try them.  Specifically, I ate the original and then the barbecue flavor from the Flock brand, made by The Naked Market company, based out of San Francisco, California.

     As so often happens, the official Flock and The Naked Market websites were a little short on information about the company's history and founders.  Fortunately, other websites filled in the gaps.  The Naked Marktet (formerly The Modern Food Ko., and yes, that was the spelling of "co." for "company" that was reported) started in 2018, being founded by Harrison Fugman, Alexander Kost, and Tim Marbach.  This company has several food and beverage brands, including Original Breakfast (protein drinks), Avocrazy (avocado puff snacks), Rob's Backstage Popcorn, Beach House Bowls (smoothies), Piggy Snacks, and Haus (a type of alcoholic beverage).  The Flock website mentioned a 2 year anniversary, so evidently it began in 2021.  The website also mentioned how the Flock chicken skin snacks are made--they use skins that would have otherwise been thrown out and put into landfills.  Or another example of "upcycling," which is a term I just learned about a few weeks ago, in my June 17, 2023 post about some banana snacks.  Once the skins are acquired they're fried in a wok, seasoned, and readied for customers.  Alternate flavors of Flock chicken skin snacks other than the two I tried are salt & vinegar, and Hattie B's Nashville Hot.  Alternate products in this line also include pork curls, biltong (air dried beef jerky), chicken jerky, bacon jerky, and "bread crumbs" made out of pork.  Also, I'd never heard of chicken skin snacks before, but apparently they're a thing--other brands I saw from just a brief online search included several, mostly with titles that are folks' names--Kim's, Marty's, and Howard's.  Moreover, if you're interested in chicken skin snacks, get ready to hear a lot about the keto diet, which to (over) simplify, is one that suggests eating lots of fat, adequate amounts of protein, and very little carbs.  Finally, fried chicken skin snacks are a feature of traditional Jewish cuisine--gribenes or grieven are this mixed with fried onions.

Flock chicken skin crisps, original flavor:  These were about the same size as a typical potato chip/crisp, with a brown color and puffy look to them.  Aside from the strong chicken-y odor, they appeared very similar to pork rinds.  They were crunchy at first, and then got a little softer.  Oily, too, especially the pieces near the bottom of the bag.  The taste was kind of bland.  Once again, they reminded me of pork rinds.  The bottom of the bag chunks were a little more flavorful, and salty, but overall these weren't dazzling.  Mediocre at best.

Flock chicken skin crisps, barbecue flavor:  These were the same random, puffy shapes as the previous, only the color had some reddish overtones to the brown.  The smell was slightly different, presumably from the barbecue spices.  The texture was also the same as the original kind--crunchy, and oily.  The taste was better--the barbecue flavor was nice, and a bit spicy.  But not overly so.  I liked these better, but still not enough to buy them again.

     I should mention that these snacks had a very long, lingering aftertaste--I was tasting them like a day later, even after consuming other foods and drinks.  And it wasn't a very pleasant aftertaste, either--kind of fatty and off-putting.  So, I don't plan on getting these again, or trying other flavors.  It appears that I'm not much of a fan of fried animal skin snacks in general.  I enjoy eating the skin off of roasted chicken, duck, or turkey, but that's about the extent of it.  However, if you're a fan of pork rinds/chicharrones, you might well like these too.

Extremely Difficult Trivia About "Aliens" (1986)

      About two years ago, on June 19, 2021 to be exact, I did a trivia quiz on the horror/sci-fi classic, "Alien."  Well, now let's get into the sequel, 1986's "Aliens."  Or, in my non-humble opinion, the only sequel or prequel in the "Alien" universe really worth seeing.  "Aliens" is pretty remarkable--it's one of the rare sequels that's great, just as awesome, if not better, than the original.  And this was accomplished in a movie that became more of an action movie than the original.  Anyway, usual drill, questions first, followed by the answers.  Many SPOILERS, obviously.  And some questions will be a little jokey, or might be discussions where the clear answer is ambiguous.  Finally, there are two major versions of this movie--the theatrical cut, and the longer director's cut.  Questions that are from the latter will be marked with an asterisk (*).

Questions:

1)     How long was Ripley in hypersleep?

2)*    What was the name of Ripley's daughter?

3)*    How old was Ripley's daughter when she died?

4)*    What town, and in what U.S. state, were the remains of Ripley's daughter placed?

5)      What kind of ship was the Nostromo, according to info we learn at the hearing?

6)      How much was the Nostromo worth in adjusted dollars, minus payload?

7)      According to the info learned in the hearing, how many worlds in the universe have been surveyed by people?

8)      What was Ripley's company serial number?

9)      What is the final decision about Ripley made at the hearing?

10)    Who is the head of this hearing?

11)    What is the common term for the type of colony on LV-426?

12)*   What is the name of the colonist's community on LV-426?

13)*   What is the population of this community, according to its sign?

14)*   Beyond what mountain range does Newt's family discover the derelict ship?

15)*   What is the motto of the Weyland-Yutani company?

16)*   What is Newt's mother's name?

17)     How long does it take the Sulaco to reach LV-426 from Earth?

18)    What system's "poontang" do the colonial marines speak of fondly?

19)    What company made Ash the android, and what model type was he?

20)    We see a nuclear missile being loaded.  What is written on it?

21)    Ripley's footwear is a real life brand.  Name it.

22)    Where does. Apone request Ripley put the cargo container that she's holding with the loader?

23)    How many simulated drops has Gorman had, and how many real, combat drops?

24)    What is written on Ferro's flight helmet?

25)    Bishop mentions one of the colonists that died during the "facehugger alien" removal.  Who was it?

26)    What is Newt's real full name?

27)    We see her name on an award plaque.  What is the award for?

28)    How does Hudson located the missing colonists?

29)    What is the name of Newt's doll?  (Who's only a head, but whatever.)

30)    What was the name of Newt's brother?

31)    Name the three characters who drive the Armored Personnel Carrier (APC).

32)    What type of ammo do the pulse rifles fire?

33)    After Gorman orders the marines to surrender their rifle magazines, who is tasked with holding them all in a bag?

34)    Which marine discovers the impregnated colonist who is still alive?

35)    Who is the first marine assaulted by an alien?

36)    What kind of nerve gas does Vasquez suggest killing the aliens with?

37)*   After the crash of the dropship, what weapons do the marines salvage?

38)    After the Sulaco doesn't respond, how long would it take a rescue ship to arrive?

39)*   What model are the robot sentries?

40)    On what date did Burke direct the colonists to look for the derelict ship?

41)    After Bishop tells the others that the processing plant will explode, how much time do they have left?

42)    How big a blast radius will this explosion have, and with how many megatons of strength?

43)    Hicks shows Ripley how to operate the marines' pulse rifle in detail.  What model is it?

44)    In addition to firing the standard ammo rounds, what other feature does this rifle have?

45)*   According to Hudson, how much time did he have left to serve in his military career?

46)    What architectural feature did the marines and Ripley forget about, which enables the aliens to sneak inside their barricade and attack them?

47)    What kind of marking flares does Ripley use in her final search for Newt?

48)    We learn the first names of only three characters who are on the Sulaco.  Name them.  (Other media provides more of the marine's names, but only 3 are mentioned within the movie itself.)

49)    What elevator do Ripley and Newt use to escape the nest?  (Its gate number is listed.)

50)    What platform do they leave from?

51)    Of the 12 colonial marines, three are corporals.  Name them.

52)    Of the 15 people who are on the Sulaco at one point or another, not counting Bishop, but counting Newt, how many are cocooned and impregnated by aliens?  (Conjectural question.)

53)    Why didn't Gorman tell the marines why he was forbidding rifle fire in the alien nest?

54)    How did the alien egg or eggs get on the Sulaco, causing the plot of Alien 3?

55)    The main ship in this movie is the Sulaco, and the one in "Alien" was the Nostromo.  How are these two names related?

56)    Which characters who were on the Sulaco were played by actors who were in the military in real life?

57)    Was the character of Lambert from "Alien" trans?

Answers:

1)    57 years.

2)    Amanda ("Amy") Ripley-McClaren.

3)    66.

4)    Little Shoot, Wisconsin.

5)    An M-class starfreighter.

6)    42,000,000.  Which, honestly, seems kind of low.

7)    Over 300.

8)    NOC14472.  Although a later screen says NOC14672, so one is a mistake.

9)    Due to her questionable judgment, her ICC commercial flight officer license is suspended indefinitely.  No criminal charges at this time, and she's released on her own recognizance, with a 6 month period of psycho-metric probation to include monthly reviews by an ICC psychiatric technician.

10)   Van Leuwen.

11)   It's a "shake and bake" colony.

12)   Hadleys Hope.  Seems like it should be Hadley's Hope, but that's how the sign renders it.

13)   158.

14)   Out past the Ilium Range.

15)   "Building Better Worlds."

16)   Annie.

17)   3 weeks.

18)   Arcturian.  Either male or female.

19)   He was a Hyperdine System 120-A2, a model Bishop maintains was "always twitchy."

20)   NT-432R.

21)   Reebok.  You can see when she steps into the loader.

22)   Bay 12.  He even says, "please."

23)   38, and then 2, counting this one.

24)   Fly the Friendly Skies, which was the (real) company tag line for United Airlines from 1965-96.

25)   John J. Marachek.

26)   Rebecca Jordan.

27)   The 2nd grade citizenship award.

28)   By tracking their surgically implanted Personal Data Transmitters, or PDTs.

29)   Casey.

30)   Timmy.

31)   Bishop drives it initially, Frost drives it to the processing station, and Ripley, obviously, drives it away from the processing station after the alien attack.

32)   A 10 mm. explosive tipped caseless standard light armor piercing round.

33)   Frost.

34)   Dietrich.

35)   Again, Dietrich.

36)   CN-20.

37)   4 pulse rifles with about 50 rounds each, 15 M-40 grenades, 1 or maybe 2 half-full flamethrowers, and 4 robot sentries.

38)   17 days.

39)   They are UA 571-C Remote Sentry Weapons Systems.

40)   6/12/79.  Don't know if in the future, which dating system won out, so either June 12th, or December 6th.  From other sources we know the year is 2179.

41)   4 hours.

42)   30 kilometers, with a strength of about 40 megatons.

43)    The M-41 A pulse rifle.

44)   It has over and under 30 mm pump action grenade launchers.

45)   4 weeks.

46)   The drop ceiling.

47)   M-94s.

48)   Ripley's first name is Ellen, Hicks' is Dwayne, and Burke's is Carter, middle initial J.  The other marines' first initials are shown, but not their full first names.

49)   28.

50)   7.

51)   Hicks, Ferro, and Dietrich.

52)   The marines who enter the nest are all connected to the APC's computer, showing their vital signs, so indicating if they're alive or not.  After the 3 survivors make it back after the alien attack, Hudson notes that Apone and Dietrich's signs are low, but they're not dead.  Meaning they're being cocooned.  He doesn't mention Drake, Frost, Crowe, or Wierzbowski, so they were presumably killed by the acid blood shower (Drake), falling down the stairwells (Frost), and the ammunition bag explosion (Crowe and Wierzbowski).  Ferro and Spunkmeyer are either killed by the alien, or in the explosion when the dropship crashes..  Later, Hudson and Burke are taken away, and almost certainly cocooned.  Gorman and Vasquez die in the suicidal grenade explosion in the air vent.  Hicks, Ripley, and Newt survive, and Bishop is torn in half, but still functioning.  Given the timing, Dietrich and Apone were almost certainly impregnated by facehuggers, and may have even "birthed" aliens.  Hudson and Burke were almost certainly impregnated, but they may have died in the processing station explosion before the aliens could emerge.  In a deleted scene, Ripley gives the impregnated Burke a grenade for suicide.  Finally, Newt was clearly cocooned, but Ripley prevents her from being impregnated.

53)   (Aside from the obvious answer, "It helped the plot.")  For an in-universe explanation, it's yet another example of Gorman's inexperience and incompetence.  If he had told them the important safety reason, maybe Drake and Vaszquez would have obeyed, and not fired their guns.  It's possible that these shots damaged the processing station, although it seems like the dropship crash was the major, or only reason.  But at the very least, his soldiers would have had one less reason to distrust and hate him.

54)   This one has always bugged me, and many fans.  Again, I know, the answer is because they wanted to do a 3rd Alien movie.  But within the movie's logic, simply put, it didn't, and couldn't happen.  The only alien who encounters the second dropship, the Queen, had detached from her egg laying sac before leaving her nest for the chase.  And we see her clearly, she's not holding an egg.  Even if somehow there was 1 egg stuck inside her or something, how did Ripley, Newt, and Bishop not see it?  I've heard some folks claim that Bishop was secretly evil, like Ash, and smuggled it aboard and hid it, but how?  He never goes into the nest, and we don't see eggs anywhere else.  And he's busy during the whole time, so he couldn't have sneaked away and gone to the nest.  Anyway, long story short, it doesn't make any sense.

55)   The Nostromo is taken from Joseph Conrad's book of the same name.  And in this story, a mentioned port town in the fictitious South American country of Costaguana is named.....Sulaco.

56)   Lance Henriksen (who played Bishop), served in the U.S. Navy.  Tip Tipping (Crowe) was a real Royal Marine for the U.K.  And Al Matthews (Apone) was also a Marine, for the U.S., and even served in Vietnam.

57)   According to the bios flashed on the screens during Ripley's hearing, she sure was.  And supposedly there was talk of making Captain Dallas trans, too, but they decided not to do that.