Alien, Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley is deservedly and understandably the star of the show in Aliens. That said, the sequel wouldn't work nearly as well as it does without the able ing cast backing her up, namely the badass troop of space marines that are sent on a bug hunt.
There are so many different personalities included, from Vasquez (Jeanette Goldstein), a female soldier tougher than most of the guys on the team, to Hudson (Bill Paxton), a boastful braggart who mentally crumbles when faced with the very real possibility that this will be the mission he doesn't come out of alive. Then there's Hicks, who ends up being the most important of the lot, expertly played by Biehn. That's a bit funny in retrospect, as Biehn was cast at the last minute after the first Hicks actor flamed out.
Hicks forms a close bond with Ripley, and one assumes they might have become a romantic pairing had Hicks not unceremoniously died at the beginning of Alien 3. Thankfully, Hicks' death was undone in Aliens: Colonial Marines, although he sadly didn't reunite with Ripley.
How Aliens Resurrected Hicks (But Not in the Movies)
In Aliens: Colonial Marines, which released in 2013 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, it was revealed that Hicks was awakened from cryosleep prior to the events of Alien 3 by two surviving colonists from Hadley's Hope. They needed help, as the Sulaco had been boarded by Weyland-Yutani mercenaries with bad intentions. A gunfight ensued, and in the chaos, one of the colonists was knocked into Hicks' open cryotube, and a bullet hit the facehugger attached to Ripley, with its acid blood causing an electrical fire. Ripley, Newt, and the man in place of Hicks were then launched in an emergency escape vehicle that ultimately landed on prison planet Fiorina-161. Hicks' "replacement" was killed and disfigured in the crash, and his corpse was mistaken for Hicks.
Sadly, Hicks arrived on Fiorina-161 just in time to see Ripley sacrifice her life to prevent Michael Bishop and Weyland-Yutani from getting their hands on the Xenomorph queen growing inside her. He was then captured and tortured by Bishop, before finally being rescued by a troop of Colonial Marines from the USS Sephora. Hicks and the Marines stand tall against Bishop's forces, but after Hicks shoots him, it's revealed that this Bishop is just another android double. Hicks ends Aliens: Colonial Marines alive, but it's unclear what happened to him after the game. At one point, Hicks (played by Biehn) was actually going to return to the big screen in director Neil Blomkamp's Aliens sequel, but when the project was canceled, so was Hicks' planned resurrection.
