Aliens is very specifically a Vietnam allegory. They go in with tons of weapons and a cocky attitude, and get their arses kicked. It also deftly subverts macho tropes of the 1980s in that way too, with all the men either dead or emasculated by the end. But instead, we get a film about motherhood and surrogacy, with two vengeful mothers - Ripley and the alien queen - determined to take the other down. It's also a great character arc for Ripley considering her trauma in the first film, in that she gets revenge big time. Funnily enough, my eldest son, who was terrified by the first film, found the second really cathartic, as for him, this one felt like getting back at the first film for all the nightmares it gave him. Hahahahaha!