This month marks the 40th anniversary of Aliens, the cult science fiction blockbuster that helped redefine Hollywood’s vision of futuristic warfare and extraterrestrial horror.
Set in 2179, James Cameron’s high-octane sequel sends a squad of Colonial Marines into a nightmare scenario, where they encounter alien threats far beyond anything they were trained to fight.
While humanity has, thankfully, yet to stumble across the deadly Xenomorph, experts say the film’s vision of the future was not entirely fantasy. In fact, some of its technological predictions have proved strikingly close to reality.
Professor Steve Benford, from the University of Nottingham, says several of the sci-fi concepts showcased in Aliens have since evolved into everyday technologies used by millions of people around the world.
The film takes place 153 years ahead of our present day — roughly the same historical distance that separates us from 1873, an era when gas lamps, steam engines and early industrial machinery represented cutting-edge innovation.
Yet despite that vast fictional leap into the future, Professor Benford notes that modern technology has already overtaken some of the devices imagined in Cameron’s 1986 classic.
Speaking to Our News Outlet, Professor Benford said the film’s most accurate — and, in his words, “sadly” prophetic — prediction was the rise of automated firearms and robotic weapons systems.
Still, not every futuristic flourish has come true. From synthetic humans to the film’s famous motion tracker, Aliens remains packed with bold ideas that science has yet to fully deliver.
This month, the cult science fiction classic Aliens celebrates its 40th anniversary. Now, a scientist has revealed what the film got right and wrong about the future of technology
What Aliens gets right
Professor Benford says one of the most impressive things Aliens gets right isn’t the big impressive pieces of technology, but the small things people carry with them.
While the apparent absence of personal phones might seem strange to modern audiences, the Colonial Marines do have plenty of wearables.
Professor Benford says that the motion detectors, wearable cameras and biosensors embedded into wristbands all feel quite ‘current’.
From smart watches to fitness tracking rings, small wearable devices are now exceptionally common.
In fact, the watches worn by many people today are smaller, smarter, and more multi-purpose than many of the devices seen in the film.
Another surprising innovation that Aliens appears to have predicted is the development of exoskeletons.
At the climax of the film, Ellen Ripley climbs into an enormous mechanical suit known as a ‘loader’.
Professor Steve Benford, of the University of Nottingham, says that the iconic ‘loader’ from Aliens is close to being replicated by modern exoskeleton technology
This humanoid robot mirrors the wearer’s movements, greatly enhancing their strength and mobility.
While that might seem far-fetched, real exoskeletons with a similar design are already starting to become commercially available.
For example, you can now purchase an Ascentiz H+K modular hip-and-knee exoskeleton for £1,250 ($1,699).
These small exoskeletons are designed to boost performance or make walking easier, but others will have a more serious purpose.
Professor Benford says: ‘I think we will see them to help people walk and otherwise assist them.’
At the Consumer Electronics Show last year, developers revealed a $250,000 exoskeleton called XoMotion, which uses 12 motors to mimic natural human movements and balance.
While XoMotion was specifically designed for disabled people who have lost the ability to use their legs, developers say it could be used by factory workers to help them lift heavy boxes without damaging their joints.
However, Professor Benford says he doesn’t think we will ever see Aliens-like loaders strutting around on factory floors.
Pictured above is the XoMotion, a futuristic high-tech exoskeleton allowing disabled people to walk forward, backwards and turn to either side. They can also sway their hips
Instead, he thinks it is much more likely that this role would be filled by robots, so that humans can stay safe out of harm’s way.
‘Some things are better controlled remotely,’ Professor Benford explains.
But the thing that Aliens predicted most accurately was the growing use of autonomous weaponry.
In the film, we see the Colonial Marines deploying automatic sentry turrets that have the ability to detect targets, aim and fire without any human intervention.
The war in Ukraine has seen the rapid advancement of robotic and fully autonomous weapon systems.
These include robotic gun platforms capable of defending positions or roaming the frontlines with only minimal human supervision.
Some of these, such as the ‘Buria’ turret developed by Frontline Robotics, even bear a striking resemblance to those seen in the film.
What Aliens gets wrong
Professor Benford says that modern autonomous weapons, such as the ‘Buria’ turret developed by Frontline Robotics (pictured), bear a striking resemblance to the automatic weapons seen in Aliens
The outbreak of the war in Ukraine has seen the rapid development of robotic weaponry, such as the DevDroid unmanned combat system (pictured)
Despite a few accurate predictions, this sci-fi classic also gets quite a few things wrong.
Most obviously, humanity is still nowhere near close to developing the ability to travel between the stars within a human lifetime.
Besides this glaring issue, the film also failed to predict just how personal technology and computer systems would develop.
One of the iconic pieces of technology in Aliens is the motion tracker, which the Colonial Marines use to track the hidden Xenomorphs.
What James Cameron couldn’t have predicted is how fast surveillance and ‘computer vision’ – a field of AI where machines are trained to recognise objects – would advance.
Professor Benford says that a network of ‘smart cameras’ throughout the colony would have been able to track both humans and aliens alike far more effectively.
Similar systems, such as ‘live facial recognition’, are already being deployed on the streets today to monitor crowds and watch for suspicious behaviour.
On the other hand, some pieces of technology in Aliens feel futuristic right now, but could be achievable in the future.
Professor Bentford says that the film didn’t anticipate how fast some personal AI tech would advance, making the film’s iconic motion tracker seem quite outdated
In particular, Professor Benford points to the character of Bishop, played by Lance Henriksen, who acts like a human but is – spoilers for anyone who has yet to watch Aliens – a type of android known as a synthetic.
‘Bishop can act autonomously and physically, making plans, moving through the world, manipulating stuff,’ Professor Benford says.
‘Today’s mobile robots may be able to do some of this, but I think they are a long way off operating at human levels of improvisation and often require human support behind the scenes.’
However, some of Bishop’s abilities are starting to seem more believable.
Professor Benford says: ‘Bishop clearly has the ability to converse with humans; this seems pretty plausible given today’s chatbots.
‘We are getting used to AI that appears to talk to us intelligently.’
The big question, Professor Benford adds, is whether our technology will ever develop to the point that, like Bishop, it appears to become self-conscious and even act morally.
He says: ‘Whether AI can become self-aware and even moral is a huge question people are asking now, and have been ever since Alan Turing first wrote about AI.’
