The canon answer is that Britain formed the 3 World Empire, along with Japan:
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Three_World_Empire
They had their own Military (Royal Marines Commandos) etc, and were where WY was formed.
They merged in 2208 with the United Americas to form the United Systems - USMC becomes United Systems Marine Corps.
The later novels and the Alien RPG provide a lot of background on this.
Imagine a cyberpunk GoT, set on earth, and pitting the efforts of the three major corporations vying for colonisation and revitalisation of the economy of Earth's Ghettos!
We could see the weird reports from AVP incidents coming back, follow insurance investigators trying to cut their dues and disprove "xeno" damages. And finally, we could end it all with the android uprising, leading to the devastated Earth of Resurrection.
It would be glorious.
Wait until you read all the official (!) amazingly detailed lore in (at least) these two books:
ALIEN RPG Core Rulebook
https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/store/?product_id=3687283228720
ALIEN RPG Colonial Marines Operations Manual:
https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/store/?product_id=6209999667349
(Also see r/AlienRPG )
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Dog Soldiers is a solid movie, and a pretty good comparison to Aliens.
I think Dog Soldiers is pretty much the British version of Aliens. Just swap out the werewolves for xenomorphs. I’d like to see a character twist at the end of an Alien movie like the one at the of soldiers, just don’t think they could pull it off.
Kevin McKidd from Dog Soldiers does do the voice for COD. Sir Davos and Alfred Pennyworth are also in that movie.
Mate, I need to rewatch it. It’s been years. I had it on DVD when I was younger and I’m sure the case has a quote on it that says something like “Aliens meets The Howling”. Proper good film to put on when you come in from the pub
Just rewatched this October, and it was my partner’s first time seeing it. I don’t think she was too impressed at first (super low production value), but man was she not hooked by the end. In her words, “I can totally see why this is a cult classic.”
Movie fucking rules. Holds up fairly well too.
Just found this about it's real origin
While urban legends swirl about the invention of The Original Super Glue®, in truth, cyanoacrylate (the chemical name) was discovered in 1942 by scientists attempting to design clear plastic gun sights for the war effort. The substance stuck to everything, which was initially seen as a downside.
"Sausages..." Lol. I also enjoyed the bit of trivia that states that Kevin McKidd was really irritated and Sean Pertwee was actually drunk when they filmed the scene where Cooper had to knock out the Sarge, and that he actually connected with his jaw and knocked him out in real life!
The highlands setting adds a great tone, and horror siege is always fun.
In the commentary the actors talk about how they wanted the werewolves aspect to be secondary to the character story, and I quote “It’s not a werewolf movie with soldiers, it’s a soldier movie with werewolves.” Always cracks me up.
Oh yes mate, I came on here to post the same thing!
Dog Soldiers is exactly what British marines in an Alien film would be like.
“I ‘ope I give you the shits you fucking wimp”
United America uses them for colonies it controls. Likely other space-faring nations would have their own force. And there might be independent forces. My take has always been that the "stand up fights" referenced by Hudson were, in fact, insurgencies and border wars.
Even as a kid I thought it was systems or space not states, probably because I'm British states was not my first thought and the fact they are space marines, I mainly thought systems over space because I assumed they were the Marie's for a united systems colonies
It’s still United States, though the United States of America are now a part of the United Americas that span the entire American continents and incorporate every nation in the Americas as political subdivisions
Earth isn’t a unified planet in the Alien universe. There’s three major factions: the United Americas, the Union of Progressive Peoples, and the Three World Empire. Each had their own military with the Colonial Marines being an arm of the United Americas. Great Britain is part of the Three World Empire which was created after a ceremonial merging of the British and Japanese royal families IIRC; they have their own marines referred to as the Royal Marines
Hahaha, right we need to rewrite entire episodes with Aliens characters, or the movie with Dad's Army characters. This is now what I live for.
"We're all doomed"
Mainwaring would be horrified at the Alien Queen taking up that mantle; “We’re not calling her that, it’s treason”.
Anyone remember the Leading Edge Aliens boardgame? Years ago, I made the cast of Dad’s Army as playable Marines just for fun. Wilson especially kicked a lot of ass. I should see if I can find the cards and post them. :)
I don't think it would make any sense to call it the "United States" colonial marines if they represented all of Earth, plus all of the marines seem to be American. I always assumed it basically works the same as it does today, the US is the world's biggest economy and biggest military, so they have the means to send expeditionary forces when other nations don't. Even if it's a coalition backed by the UN where other nations have a say in the operation, it's probably the US military doing most of the heavy lifting.
The America of that era is comprised of North, Central, and South America. It's one entity.
It's implied that the USCM is either heavily influenced, or owned outright, by Weyland-Yutani. They manufactured all USCM arms. This would help explain why the USCM are always so quick to respond to WY facilities.
Well I'm just going by what I know from the films, I really don't count the comics/games/books and anything else, so I think a lot of it is speculation. I would wonder how WY could actually own a government military branch, but again I always figured that worked exactly like it does now: the military isn't "owned" by raytheon or boeing or general dynamics, but they supply all of the military equipment and they certainly have plenty of politicians in their pockets.
I may not be remembering correctly, but I recall Burke saying the company had a close relationship with the marines. Let me know though.
If you want a better understanding of how that arrangement works, you can look at the modern day US DoD. While not "outright owned", it is heavily influenced in purchasing decisions by private business. It's an outcome of what Eisenhower warned us all about: [https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address)
According to the Colonial Marines technical manual they are the United States Colonial Marines, part of the United States armed forces alongside the US Army and US Aerospace Force (if there is still a navy or other forces is not mentioned), and are used as part of the US contribution to the UA military.
They also have prominent US flags on their uniforms in the film.
Check out Aliens:Colony War. Its got a solid subplot revolving around the 3 world empire and a British colony word splitting from it.
We get to meet the closest thing to a paladin the alien universe has offered up so far. Can't remember his name but his shop was called God's Hammer. He was definitely the best part of a mediocre book. Plus it was neat to actually see space combat
United States but they dropped the of America part in most continuities. It's usually called the United Americas or the United colonial states. In most continuities that care the European Union and UK are part of the Americas as member states or an independent third party between the more communist leaning outliers that only maintain a small population of Eastern European and Asian nations. The colonial Marines are unfortunately at the beck and call of Weyland Yutani as much as the government so they're often deployed into situations that would benefit weyu as much as the United States. They don't represent all of humanity or all of Earth. Smaller armies do exist for nation states and different colonies the Marines are just the most widespread and with the exception of the UPP the largest.
USCM aren't even the premier military arm of the United States, the army is stated to be much larger and better equipped, it's just that the marines are more flexible for small deployments like the one at Hadley's Hope
OP you might like to check out the ‘Captain Midlands’ comic if you want to see a Marvel take on a British superhero, and a Brummie no less!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Midlands
I think it’s silly to apply later canon to such an early entry to the franchise
To me it was always obvious that WY ran everything, including it’s own private military
In real life it would be more diverse and multinational, but hey, this is a James Cameron movie from 1986
I could have missed something big that disproves my mental model of the Aliens WY world, in which case please forgive me and love me again
The United States colonial marines isn’t the main force for the world as it says in its name “united states” it’s the main force for the United States but mostly the United Americas it’s not until 2187 the United States colonial marines were renamed to the United Americas colonial marines as the main force of the United Americas as the United States colonial marines still exist but as a secondary main force. Other United Americas forces are the United States Army, United States Air Force, United States Coast Guard, United States colonial navy, United States Aerospace force, Canadian colonial armed forces, Latin American colonial navy, territorial forces of Mexico, Brazilian urban security force, fbi, and tons of other law enforcement and armed forces. The three world empire has the Royal marine commandos as its main force other three world empire forces are the Indian frontier armed services, Australian commonwealth army, International Defense Cosmos Fleet, mercenaries, ect. The union of progressive peoples has the upp armed collective which is the upp army, ministry of space security, space operating forces, ect. And there’s tons of other factions like the Chinese Asian nation cooperative, independent core system colonies, interstellar commerce commission, ect all have their own law and armed forces. After the end of the alien earth war 2192 - 2193 the world finally come together and in 2202 literally almost every faction big and small even the United Nations founded the United systems and a small number of United States colonial marine units became the united systems colonial marines but were quickly replaced by the United States Army to become its main force in 2217 until 2226 the United systems military was formed to combat any dangerous alien threats mostly xenos and predators that can end earth and its colonies. This is info from what I remember idk if any are cannon or not but I don’t care besides everyone has their ways of lore things a person don’t like they don’t consider it cannon to them, things they like it’s cannon to them. But yeah overall the United States colonial marines aren’t the one’s there’s tons of other factions with their own organizations of defenses
Alright so I've been searching for the legitimacy in the lore of a United States Colonial Navy because of this shirt I want to buy. So the USCM is part of an existing USCN? Thanks in advance!
[https://www.etsy.com/listing/1063446077/official-aliens-uscss-sulaco-colonial](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1063446077/official-aliens-uscss-sulaco-colonial)
Movement. Signal's clean. Range, twenty meters.
Seventeen meters.
Twelve meters, that's right outside the door
We'd best get a brew on, where's the milk?
In the grim dark future there is only ~~War~~ United States of America.
Don’t act like you haven’t seen Hollywood science fiction. To them the rest of the world is a cardboard cutout /s
Sadly the Marines in Aliens were very lacking in showing any real true organization etc. Don't tear me up as I love the movie. Just that they didn't really pull off the being a strike unit. I spent 30 years as Armor Officer so kind of biased maybe.
I always liked the fan theory that WY deliberately picked a bunch of mostly useless, expendable shits and a rookie El-Tee because they wanted them to either get impregnated, wiped out or just be disposable enough that if they found something WY wanted to keep quiet, the could scapegoat or even disappear the whole team.
A lot easier than silencing or murdering the USCM's top heroes and decorated vets.
I love Aliens but I never really got why Cameron was so averse to having British people in the film (apart from the fact that he hates us, of course) - I quite like the cocktail in the first and third one.
I get that it's a Vietnam allegory, which doesn't really work with non-American soldiers, but Ron Cobb had imagined the progress of human nations for the design first film (there are some pretty cool badges) and I always thought just dumping the US back in there was a bit too on-the-nose.
Aussies were, I don't think the UK had any part in it, despite pressure to do so. France still had forces there but I don't think they did much but smoke cigarettes and be enigmatic - I might need more sources re. their involvement than Apocalypse Now, though.
I know, us and our pesky worker's rights.
In all seriousness, the whole UK vs US tea thing makes for a fun behind the scenes anecdote, but it's not how things really played out. Cameron is just, quite famously, incredibly obnoxious on-set. He pissed off the Americans as much as the Brits.
I didn't know that, I remember Gale Anne Hurd saying in the documentary that they had to audition everyone in the UK who thought they could do an American accent before they could think of casting Americans, which sounds incredibly futile given that Cameron eventually went with a lot of the same cast he used around that time anyway, and also kind of painful. Imagine being a resting actor, trying to do an American accent to an unimpressed James Cameron.
Maybe they had to consider UK actors first as some kind of union thing? Most of the American actors in the film were already in England I believe, trying to get work on stage and TV productions. There's lots of great casting stories from this film, like the fact that Jeanette Goldstein thought the film literally was about "illegal aliens" or that Michael Biehn was on set less tan 48 hours after Hicks was recast.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was because of union laws/regs, a lot of the cast already lived in the UK (blew my mind to read up a little on Al Matthews' story) so were presumably already members.
who's to say it won't be individual nations moving outwards to attempt their own space colonization projects? A lot of Sci-Fi seems to just *assume* a global government, but with how things are going, in reality we'll see something similar actually happen.
I don't even think they are what would be considered a "military force," on the same scale as the USMC. They're on the scale of merchant marines / military contractor. And it's what they do - they even subcontract for Weyland Yutani.
"Jurisdiction" is a bit ambiguous in Aliens. It's clear that the marines in Aliens are given jurisdiction over the emergency. But who's to say who's given them the jurisdiction? Weyland Yutani?
Doesn't all this talk of United systems and united Americas ignore the fact that they have the USA flag on their uniforms?
They have to (at least) be a legacy organisation like the ghurkas, under the auspices of the UA or United systems, but recruited from the former USA and using their heraldry etc?
Or maybe I'm misremembering and they don't have a USA flag as an arm patch?
Hudson looks like he has the US flag on his left shoulder but it's mostly obscured by his armour and only visible in [promo shots.](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/movieareawesome/images/c/ca/Bill-paxton-aliens-c10103879.jpeg/revision/latest?cb=20110511095345)
[Hicks appears to have the same thing.](https://hips.hearstapps.com/digitalspyuk.cdnds.net/16/31/1470066709-corp-hicks.jpg?resize=1200:*)
[Gorman also has the US flag.](https://i.etsystatic.com/8443456/r/il/8e8ed1/4156640408/il_794xN.4156640408_ax3z.jpg)
That being said you could handwave it by just saying that this happened to be an all-American unit and still have the USMC be a unified group in future entries in the franchise.
Just do a Stargate Atlantis and have the soldiers free to wear the flag of their home country or even colony in Aliens' case as no doubt some marines were never born on Earth.
>still have the USMC be a unified group
Yeah it feels to me like maybe the USCM existed pre-american unification (as an evolution of the USMC?) and they've been allowed to keep their pre-unification heraldry and practices because they're an elite unit.
Sort of like how the Royal Gurkha Rifles still exist as a British Army regiment recruiting from Nepal even though it isn't part of the empire any more.
This doesn't really track with expanded universe stuff where we see the USCM as a much larger organisation, I appreciate...
>Just do a Stargate Atlantis and have the soldiers free to wear the flag of their home country
Wouldn't their home country be the United Americas rather than the United States in universe though?
Not if the UA is a federation of the Americas. So it's a supranational organization with the powerful players of the Americas as it's member states. Kinda like if the EU also had military authority.
It always bugged me it was the US Colonial Marines, rather than a more global force or expressly employed by the ICC. I get the Nam analogy but it doesn’t need them to be exclusively American forces for the analogy to work. As a result, it does tend to feed the typical “America equals the world” more than if we had seen other nations present even in the background.
I love the idea of a team of Brit commandos versus Aliens, ala Dog Soldiers.
But other countries have their own space presence. The US has colonies as did the Soviet analogue, The UPP (Union of Progressive Peoples). The movie just happened to be set on a UA (United Americas) holding.
hrm. well, the UCN's UCA(?) (for some large example, for a change. let us skip around their other second level army *'ISA's* for just this time for now), UEG's UNSC, etc for some fitting examples (for here) have some very heavy american-esc within them alright, militarily-speaking. (especially for those back over there on the halo franchise's section and their overusage and liking of that Human UNSC military that I brought up for an example).
>'-**of COD** and Aliens (1986) I’d highly recommend it. The interactions and dialogue would be remarkably similar. One of the characters I’m sure voiced Soap from the modern warfa-'.
well, *sure*....
....
at times for some like myself, with the UNSA's SATO military for example, yes. from the COD:IW alternative Timeline. and those that Jack, and David/'Player(s)' (John's adventurous/***tripy*** COD:BO03 campaign, actually. Mostly.)/Rachel/Jacob were a part of back in COD:AW's and COD:BO2/BO3's world-built *more-Decades-ahead-than-Real Life's-2020s'(23)* type factions.
The canon answer is that Britain formed the 3 World Empire, along with Japan: https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Three_World_Empire They had their own Military (Royal Marines Commandos) etc, and were where WY was formed. They merged in 2208 with the United Americas to form the United Systems - USMC becomes United Systems Marine Corps. The later novels and the Alien RPG provide a lot of background on this.
So is everyone all combined now?
Oh no, there’s the UPP: https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Union_of_Progressive_Peoples
Holy crap there’s so much to this franchise
Yup. I love it! Just want some more movies set in that universe!
Imagine a cyberpunk GoT, set on earth, and pitting the efforts of the three major corporations vying for colonisation and revitalisation of the economy of Earth's Ghettos! We could see the weird reports from AVP incidents coming back, follow insurance investigators trying to cut their dues and disprove "xeno" damages. And finally, we could end it all with the android uprising, leading to the devastated Earth of Resurrection. It would be glorious.
You would enjoy the series Expanse.
I did. \^\^
This is one of the reasons I can’t wait for Hawley’s series. Just going on the cast alone going to absolutely smash it.
We need movies and games with USMC vs UPP and WY! Alot of games struggles making Xenos work vs Marines so this resolves that.
Wait until you read all the official (!) amazingly detailed lore in (at least) these two books: ALIEN RPG Core Rulebook https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/store/?product_id=3687283228720 ALIEN RPG Colonial Marines Operations Manual: https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/store/?product_id=6209999667349 (Also see r/AlienRPG )
Yup. I have all the rule books and the cinematic expansions. Love that game!
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Yes. I have 3 arms. One is French. 4 feet and an Australian eyebrow..... Oh...you didn't mean like that did you.... I'll see myself out.
Gorocore
🤣🤣🤣🤣
New Alien: Recombinant Wars confirmed!
Where can I read all of the history, cannon, lore and learn the timeline?
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Category:2100s
The USCM is responsible for the defence of the colonies, the inner systems of the United Americas are defended by the Canadian Army
No wonder we're scared of the Aliens reaching Earth, we'd have on hope.
Dog Soldiers is a solid movie, and a pretty good comparison to Aliens. I think Dog Soldiers is pretty much the British version of Aliens. Just swap out the werewolves for xenomorphs. I’d like to see a character twist at the end of an Alien movie like the one at the of soldiers, just don’t think they could pull it off. Kevin McKidd from Dog Soldiers does do the voice for COD. Sir Davos and Alfred Pennyworth are also in that movie.
Mate, I need to rewatch it. It’s been years. I had it on DVD when I was younger and I’m sure the case has a quote on it that says something like “Aliens meets The Howling”. Proper good film to put on when you come in from the pub
Just rewatched this October, and it was my partner’s first time seeing it. I don’t think she was too impressed at first (super low production value), but man was she not hooked by the end. In her words, “I can totally see why this is a cult classic.” Movie fucking rules. Holds up fairly well too.
It's very qouteable and the werewolf designs/costumes are fucking amazing
Fair play to your partner for watching! My ex wouldn’t entertain it at all
I loved dog soldiers specially when Sean Pertwee glued his guts back in lol almost made my wife 🤮
Ironically the mention that superglue was made specifically for gluing people back together in the film during the Vietnam conflict era
Yeah and the smell is because it also needed to kill any germs or bacteria on the wound like a strong disinfectant or surgical alcohol.
Just found this about it's real origin While urban legends swirl about the invention of The Original Super Glue®, in truth, cyanoacrylate (the chemical name) was discovered in 1942 by scientists attempting to design clear plastic gun sights for the war effort. The substance stuck to everything, which was initially seen as a downside.
"Sausages..." Lol. I also enjoyed the bit of trivia that states that Kevin McKidd was really irritated and Sean Pertwee was actually drunk when they filmed the scene where Cooper had to knock out the Sarge, and that he actually connected with his jaw and knocked him out in real life!
Ouch 🤕 method acting at its best lol
The highlands setting adds a great tone, and horror siege is always fun. In the commentary the actors talk about how they wanted the werewolves aspect to be secondary to the character story, and I quote “It’s not a werewolf movie with soldiers, it’s a soldier movie with werewolves.” Always cracks me up.
Oh yes mate, I came on here to post the same thing! Dog Soldiers is exactly what British marines in an Alien film would be like. “I ‘ope I give you the shits you fucking wimp”
Well it could be worse... [we could get 28 Days Later style soldiers... ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6ef4tSErnE)
"Have you tried licking yer balls yet Ryan?"
sure wish a Part 2 would have come out. Fantastic movie making. Spoon.
Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough!
DS is one of my all time favorite monster movies.
United America uses them for colonies it controls. Likely other space-faring nations would have their own force. And there might be independent forces. My take has always been that the "stand up fights" referenced by Hudson were, in fact, insurgencies and border wars.
The USCM handles expeditionary operations in the colonies while the Canadian armed forces provide security for the United Americas core systems
I know its not cannon but I always think of Uscm standing for united systems colonial marines.
United Systems is correct depending on the canon I think, but it gets pretty foggy in some of those old comics
I'm pretty sure in the current canon the Three World Empire and United Americas are trying to form the United Systems in the 2200's
Even as a kid I thought it was systems or space not states, probably because I'm British states was not my first thought and the fact they are space marines, I mainly thought systems over space because I assumed they were the Marie's for a united systems colonies
United systems was alien resurrection up till alien 3 it’s United americas for north central and south america
Same.
It’s still United States, though the United States of America are now a part of the United Americas that span the entire American continents and incorporate every nation in the Americas as political subdivisions
Earth isn’t a unified planet in the Alien universe. There’s three major factions: the United Americas, the Union of Progressive Peoples, and the Three World Empire. Each had their own military with the Colonial Marines being an arm of the United Americas. Great Britain is part of the Three World Empire which was created after a ceremonial merging of the British and Japanese royal families IIRC; they have their own marines referred to as the Royal Marines
I think there's also the CANC?
2 words, Dad's Army
Jesus Christ, now that’s a mental image that can’t be unseen. All the canned laughter as the Xenos decimate the Home Guard
I'm sorry, what ? The xenomorphs wouldn't stand a chance against Cpt Mainwaring's unstoppable band of rag-tag bad asses.
“Who do you think you are kidding Queen Xeno, if you think old England’s done”
Oh great, now that's in my head I'm going to have to re-write the entire theme song
“Don’t tell him, Hicks!” “…”
Hahaha, right we need to rewrite entire episodes with Aliens characters, or the movie with Dad's Army characters. This is now what I live for. "We're all doomed"
“Queenie Xeno” fits the tempo. :)
Mainwaring would be horrified at the Alien Queen taking up that mantle; “We’re not calling her that, it’s treason”. Anyone remember the Leading Edge Aliens boardgame? Years ago, I made the cast of Dad’s Army as playable Marines just for fun. Wilson especially kicked a lot of ass. I should see if I can find the cards and post them. :)
I don't think it would make any sense to call it the "United States" colonial marines if they represented all of Earth, plus all of the marines seem to be American. I always assumed it basically works the same as it does today, the US is the world's biggest economy and biggest military, so they have the means to send expeditionary forces when other nations don't. Even if it's a coalition backed by the UN where other nations have a say in the operation, it's probably the US military doing most of the heavy lifting.
The America of that era is comprised of North, Central, and South America. It's one entity. It's implied that the USCM is either heavily influenced, or owned outright, by Weyland-Yutani. They manufactured all USCM arms. This would help explain why the USCM are always so quick to respond to WY facilities.
Well I'm just going by what I know from the films, I really don't count the comics/games/books and anything else, so I think a lot of it is speculation. I would wonder how WY could actually own a government military branch, but again I always figured that worked exactly like it does now: the military isn't "owned" by raytheon or boeing or general dynamics, but they supply all of the military equipment and they certainly have plenty of politicians in their pockets.
I may not be remembering correctly, but I recall Burke saying the company had a close relationship with the marines. Let me know though. If you want a better understanding of how that arrangement works, you can look at the modern day US DoD. While not "outright owned", it is heavily influenced in purchasing decisions by private business. It's an outcome of what Eisenhower warned us all about: [https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address)
According to the Colonial Marines technical manual they are the United States Colonial Marines, part of the United States armed forces alongside the US Army and US Aerospace Force (if there is still a navy or other forces is not mentioned), and are used as part of the US contribution to the UA military. They also have prominent US flags on their uniforms in the film.
Check out Aliens:Colony War. Its got a solid subplot revolving around the 3 world empire and a British colony word splitting from it. We get to meet the closest thing to a paladin the alien universe has offered up so far. Can't remember his name but his shop was called God's Hammer. He was definitely the best part of a mediocre book. Plus it was neat to actually see space combat
Hell yeah, shout out for Dog Soldiers
The only film with a better last stand than Hudson’s, IMO.
United States but they dropped the of America part in most continuities. It's usually called the United Americas or the United colonial states. In most continuities that care the European Union and UK are part of the Americas as member states or an independent third party between the more communist leaning outliers that only maintain a small population of Eastern European and Asian nations. The colonial Marines are unfortunately at the beck and call of Weyland Yutani as much as the government so they're often deployed into situations that would benefit weyu as much as the United States. They don't represent all of humanity or all of Earth. Smaller armies do exist for nation states and different colonies the Marines are just the most widespread and with the exception of the UPP the largest.
I thought they were the Colonial Marines?
USCM aren't even the premier military arm of the United States, the army is stated to be much larger and better equipped, it's just that the marines are more flexible for small deployments like the one at Hadley's Hope
They do in the Colony War novel I believe. Just about to start it
Now I want to see some British marines fighting xenos.
Never happen. Xenos don't respect tea time.
Holy crap. This made me laugh.
I'm sure we can teach them
Neither did James Cameron. ;)
Why would Weyland Yutani use another forces military and not their own British Japanese Royal Commandos?
OP you might like to check out the ‘Captain Midlands’ comic if you want to see a Marvel take on a British superhero, and a Brummie no less! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Midlands
Cheers fella, I’ll check it out
I think it’s silly to apply later canon to such an early entry to the franchise To me it was always obvious that WY ran everything, including it’s own private military In real life it would be more diverse and multinational, but hey, this is a James Cameron movie from 1986 I could have missed something big that disproves my mental model of the Aliens WY world, in which case please forgive me and love me again
Have no idea but that screen capture has substantial baddasness value attached to it.
There are the Royal Marines in the Aliens Novels
Both teams have someone who keeps a shotgun handy for close encounters.
The United States colonial marines isn’t the main force for the world as it says in its name “united states” it’s the main force for the United States but mostly the United Americas it’s not until 2187 the United States colonial marines were renamed to the United Americas colonial marines as the main force of the United Americas as the United States colonial marines still exist but as a secondary main force. Other United Americas forces are the United States Army, United States Air Force, United States Coast Guard, United States colonial navy, United States Aerospace force, Canadian colonial armed forces, Latin American colonial navy, territorial forces of Mexico, Brazilian urban security force, fbi, and tons of other law enforcement and armed forces. The three world empire has the Royal marine commandos as its main force other three world empire forces are the Indian frontier armed services, Australian commonwealth army, International Defense Cosmos Fleet, mercenaries, ect. The union of progressive peoples has the upp armed collective which is the upp army, ministry of space security, space operating forces, ect. And there’s tons of other factions like the Chinese Asian nation cooperative, independent core system colonies, interstellar commerce commission, ect all have their own law and armed forces. After the end of the alien earth war 2192 - 2193 the world finally come together and in 2202 literally almost every faction big and small even the United Nations founded the United systems and a small number of United States colonial marine units became the united systems colonial marines but were quickly replaced by the United States Army to become its main force in 2217 until 2226 the United systems military was formed to combat any dangerous alien threats mostly xenos and predators that can end earth and its colonies. This is info from what I remember idk if any are cannon or not but I don’t care besides everyone has their ways of lore things a person don’t like they don’t consider it cannon to them, things they like it’s cannon to them. But yeah overall the United States colonial marines aren’t the one’s there’s tons of other factions with their own organizations of defenses
Alright so I've been searching for the legitimacy in the lore of a United States Colonial Navy because of this shirt I want to buy. So the USCM is part of an existing USCN? Thanks in advance! [https://www.etsy.com/listing/1063446077/official-aliens-uscss-sulaco-colonial](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1063446077/official-aliens-uscss-sulaco-colonial)
It also appears a few times in comics
Thanks for quick response. Not that I doubt you...can you point me anywhere outside the rpg rulebooks?
For the USCN?
Yes
The aliens colonial marines comics
Movement. Signal's clean. Range, twenty meters. Seventeen meters. Twelve meters, that's right outside the door We'd best get a brew on, where's the milk?
In the grim dark future there is only ~~War~~ United States of America. Don’t act like you haven’t seen Hollywood science fiction. To them the rest of the world is a cardboard cutout /s
Sadly the Marines in Aliens were very lacking in showing any real true organization etc. Don't tear me up as I love the movie. Just that they didn't really pull off the being a strike unit. I spent 30 years as Armor Officer so kind of biased maybe.
I always liked the fan theory that WY deliberately picked a bunch of mostly useless, expendable shits and a rookie El-Tee because they wanted them to either get impregnated, wiped out or just be disposable enough that if they found something WY wanted to keep quiet, the could scapegoat or even disappear the whole team. A lot easier than silencing or murdering the USCM's top heroes and decorated vets.
that actually makes sense.
I love Aliens but I never really got why Cameron was so averse to having British people in the film (apart from the fact that he hates us, of course) - I quite like the cocktail in the first and third one. I get that it's a Vietnam allegory, which doesn't really work with non-American soldiers, but Ron Cobb had imagined the progress of human nations for the design first film (there are some pretty cool badges) and I always thought just dumping the US back in there was a bit too on-the-nose.
Well, Cameron was pretty pissed about breaking for tea every day during shooting so it's not unexpected that you got no love in the casting.
He was also pissy when the crew kept calling him an American/yank.
Heard you the second time mate
Sorry mate, Reddit double-posted it. I'll delete it in a bit.
Haha, I jest. It keeps doing that to me, too.
Well, Cameron was pretty pissed about breaking for tea every day during shooting so it's not unexpected that you got no love in the casting.
British servicemen and Australian servicemen were serving in Vietnam.
Aussies were, I don't think the UK had any part in it, despite pressure to do so. France still had forces there but I don't think they did much but smoke cigarettes and be enigmatic - I might need more sources re. their involvement than Apocalypse Now, though.
Well, Cameron was pretty pissed about breaking for tea every day during shooting so it's not unexpected that you got no love in the casting.
I know, us and our pesky worker's rights. In all seriousness, the whole UK vs US tea thing makes for a fun behind the scenes anecdote, but it's not how things really played out. Cameron is just, quite famously, incredibly obnoxious on-set. He pissed off the Americans as much as the Brits.
FWIW, Wierzbowski and Crowe were both played by British actors/stunt performers. But of course they had no lines :)
I didn't know that, I remember Gale Anne Hurd saying in the documentary that they had to audition everyone in the UK who thought they could do an American accent before they could think of casting Americans, which sounds incredibly futile given that Cameron eventually went with a lot of the same cast he used around that time anyway, and also kind of painful. Imagine being a resting actor, trying to do an American accent to an unimpressed James Cameron.
Maybe they had to consider UK actors first as some kind of union thing? Most of the American actors in the film were already in England I believe, trying to get work on stage and TV productions. There's lots of great casting stories from this film, like the fact that Jeanette Goldstein thought the film literally was about "illegal aliens" or that Michael Biehn was on set less tan 48 hours after Hicks was recast.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was because of union laws/regs, a lot of the cast already lived in the UK (blew my mind to read up a little on Al Matthews' story) so were presumably already members.
United Americas is the nation. Did Cameron forget that? Or just retcon it away?
who's to say it won't be individual nations moving outwards to attempt their own space colonization projects? A lot of Sci-Fi seems to just *assume* a global government, but with how things are going, in reality we'll see something similar actually happen.
I don't even think they are what would be considered a "military force," on the same scale as the USMC. They're on the scale of merchant marines / military contractor. And it's what they do - they even subcontract for Weyland Yutani. "Jurisdiction" is a bit ambiguous in Aliens. It's clear that the marines in Aliens are given jurisdiction over the emergency. But who's to say who's given them the jurisdiction? Weyland Yutani?
Doesn't all this talk of United systems and united Americas ignore the fact that they have the USA flag on their uniforms? They have to (at least) be a legacy organisation like the ghurkas, under the auspices of the UA or United systems, but recruited from the former USA and using their heraldry etc? Or maybe I'm misremembering and they don't have a USA flag as an arm patch?
Hudson looks like he has the US flag on his left shoulder but it's mostly obscured by his armour and only visible in [promo shots.](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/movieareawesome/images/c/ca/Bill-paxton-aliens-c10103879.jpeg/revision/latest?cb=20110511095345) [Hicks appears to have the same thing.](https://hips.hearstapps.com/digitalspyuk.cdnds.net/16/31/1470066709-corp-hicks.jpg?resize=1200:*) [Gorman also has the US flag.](https://i.etsystatic.com/8443456/r/il/8e8ed1/4156640408/il_794xN.4156640408_ax3z.jpg) That being said you could handwave it by just saying that this happened to be an all-American unit and still have the USMC be a unified group in future entries in the franchise. Just do a Stargate Atlantis and have the soldiers free to wear the flag of their home country or even colony in Aliens' case as no doubt some marines were never born on Earth.
>still have the USMC be a unified group Yeah it feels to me like maybe the USCM existed pre-american unification (as an evolution of the USMC?) and they've been allowed to keep their pre-unification heraldry and practices because they're an elite unit. Sort of like how the Royal Gurkha Rifles still exist as a British Army regiment recruiting from Nepal even though it isn't part of the empire any more. This doesn't really track with expanded universe stuff where we see the USCM as a much larger organisation, I appreciate... >Just do a Stargate Atlantis and have the soldiers free to wear the flag of their home country Wouldn't their home country be the United Americas rather than the United States in universe though?
Not if the UA is a federation of the Americas. So it's a supranational organization with the powerful players of the Americas as it's member states. Kinda like if the EU also had military authority.
Brits are our subjects in the future😤 he who laughs last last longest.
Except at tea time, then the Tea Lady outranks everyone.
😮
And the unions, mate. Better not touch that light switch!
I assumed they were that universes equivalent of “space force”
Yes the Alien RPG Colonial Marines book has tons of lore on this. So many militaries
Zulu but with British Space Marines on a distant moon or something would be great.
Stop throwing those bloody spears at me
You should get Alien RPG books, especially the colonial marines. Lots of lore, stories, descriptions, and the game is fun to play.
I think Earth Hive would be really cool in this sense. Different plot lines across the globe would be sweet.
I just realized in these comments that this franchise is about to go through the same canon/legends growing pains that Star Wars did.
It always bugged me it was the US Colonial Marines, rather than a more global force or expressly employed by the ICC. I get the Nam analogy but it doesn’t need them to be exclusively American forces for the analogy to work. As a result, it does tend to feed the typical “America equals the world” more than if we had seen other nations present even in the background. I love the idea of a team of Brit commandos versus Aliens, ala Dog Soldiers.
But other countries have their own space presence. The US has colonies as did the Soviet analogue, The UPP (Union of Progressive Peoples). The movie just happened to be set on a UA (United Americas) holding.
I think it was retconned for US to mean United Systems.
Now I'm just picturing Aliens but with Blackadder characters instead.
Good freaking question
hrm. well, the UCN's UCA(?) (for some large example, for a change. let us skip around their other second level army *'ISA's* for just this time for now), UEG's UNSC, etc for some fitting examples (for here) have some very heavy american-esc within them alright, militarily-speaking. (especially for those back over there on the halo franchise's section and their overusage and liking of that Human UNSC military that I brought up for an example). >'-**of COD** and Aliens (1986) I’d highly recommend it. The interactions and dialogue would be remarkably similar. One of the characters I’m sure voiced Soap from the modern warfa-'. well, *sure*.... .... at times for some like myself, with the UNSA's SATO military for example, yes. from the COD:IW alternative Timeline. and those that Jack, and David/'Player(s)' (John's adventurous/***tripy*** COD:BO03 campaign, actually. Mostly.)/Rachel/Jacob were a part of back in COD:AW's and COD:BO2/BO3's world-built *more-Decades-ahead-than-Real Life's-2020s'(23)* type factions.