Mark Drake was a supporting character in James Cameron's 1986 sci-fi horror film, Aliens. He served in the United States Colonial Marine Corps with the rank of Private First Class and was proficient with operating a Smartgun. He was part of the unit aboard the USS Sulaco assigned to investigate the loss of contact with the Hadley's Hope colony on LV-426. He was portrayed by Mark Rolston.
History[]
Before joining the Colonial Marines, Drake was a delinquent who was responsible for a number of petty crimes. After being convicted for murder, he was sent to a juvenile prison. There, he would meet Jenette Vasquez. The pair subsequently enlisted in the USCM under the Service or Jail Act, thereby escaping further jail time. Both Drake and Vasquez passed through boot camp together and afterwards requested assignment to the same unit. Both also chose to specialize in advanced weapons training, during which their Smartgun drill instructor labelled them "the sweethearts" on account of their close relationship (although both denied this relationship to be romantic).
In 2179, Drake and Vasquez' unit was deployed to LV-426 after the Hadley's Hope colony had gone dark. The duo weren't keen on Ellen Ripley joining the mission as an advisor and didn't fully believe her story regarding the Xenomorphs, but this attitude changed once they entered the colony's atmospheric processing station and found that it had been converted into a hive. By the time the team had entered the hive, all but one of the missing colonists were dead, and that last colonist died in front of the Marines when a Xenomorph larva burst out of her chest. Vasquez torched the infant alien with an Incinerator, but the creature's screech awoke the rest of the hive.
When the Marines had entered the processing station, Sgt. Apone had them remove the ammo packs from their pulse rifles. Vasquez and Drake had done the same, but had snuck spare packs with them and loaded them while Apone wasn't looking. This would turn out to be a fortuitous decision — when the team was disastrously ambushed by a horde of Xenomorph drones, Drake and Vasquez were the only Marines able to provide the section with effective cover, although the gunfire badly damaged the atmosphere processor's reactor, as had been feared, and the station later went into meltdown.
Death[]
Despite the heavy fire being laid down by Drake and Vasquez, more than half of the team was either killed or captured by the aliens, leaving Hicks to organize a hasty retreat. Drake held the rear, using his Smartgun to slaughter incoming Xenomorphs while the others ran for the APC. While successful, he soon exhausted his ammunition and was forced to discard the cumbersome weapon, switching instead to the M240 Incinerator he had acquired as a backup.
As he neared the APC, Drake failed to notice a drone emerge from a nearby wall to ambush him. It was spotted by Vasquez, who warned him before shooting it repeatedly with her Smartgun. However, the creature exploded and showered Drake with its acid blood, melting half his face and killing him. As Drake died, he flailed in agony and inadvertently sprayed the APC with his flamethrower before collapsing into the flames, creating a fire the survivors had to deal with before they could close the door and escape.