Sunday Top Ten - James Cameron action sequences

With a mere eight feature films gracing his thirty-year career (not including his forays into television and deep-sea documentary filmmaking), it can be a bit frustrating being a James Cameron fan. Who wants to wait three years at a time between films? But then again, it's Cameron's painstaking perfectionism that makes his movies, and especially his action sequences, so thrilling and unforgettable, and most definitely worth the wait. No one understands better than he that action should extend organically from the story, yet should also take on a life of its own; a mini-story within the story. For my money, these are the master storyteller's ten best:

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Aliens

Nathaniel Rogers' Hit Me With Your Best Shot series over a The Film Experience is examining the strange goings-on on the planet LV-426, which I'm sure you'll recall is the setting of James Cameron's wicked 1986 sci-fi actioner Aliens. Cameron and DP Adrien Biddle concocted arresting images too numerous to count for the film, but for me, there are a select few standouts:

The reveal of Stan Winston's mother alien in all her slimy glory is heart-stopping to say the least, and makes a great gasp-inducing start to her tense staredown with Ripley. A nice companion shot to the one above would be this similarly back-light image of Ripley and her weapon of choice, a mechanical loader, on the cusp of the her most cited quotation, "Get away from her, you bitch!".

But the real money shot is that of young Newt in peril, trapped in a flooded corridor, initially unaware of the sinister tail emerging from the water behind her. I jumped clean out of my seat the first time I saw this, and it still gives me shivers to this day.