William Hudson (portrayed by Bill Paxton) was a supporting character in the sci-fi horror film Aliens. He was a combat technician in the United States Colonial Marine Corps, serving in the 2nd Battalion with the rank of Private First Class. He was among the Marines aboard the USS Sulaco assigned to investigate LV-426 after the Hadley's Hope colony was overrun by Xenomorphs.
History[]
The mission to LV-426 was supposed to be Hudson's last, as he had only 4 weeks left on his deployment and was due to be honorably discharged upon return to Earth. As soon as he emerged from hypersleep he began aggravating Sergeant Apone with his sarcastic comments. Following this, he moved on to Private Vasquez, inquiring (due to her muscular physique and masculine haircut) whether she had ever been mistaken for a man; she promptly shot him down by asking whether he had the same problem.
During breakfast, Hudson acted as ringleader in the Marines' attempts to get Bishop to perform his knife trick. Bishop eventually caved, although Private Drake "volunteered" Hudson for the trick by restraining him and pinning his hand to the table with Bishop's hand on top. Hudson could only watch, terrified, as Bishop performed the trick on them at blurring speed. During the briefing on what they might encounter at Hadley's Hope, Hudson again focused on aggravating others, ridiculing Lieutenant Gorman for confusing him with Corporal Hicks and mocking Vasquez for being an illegal immigrant. Following the briefing, Hudson managed to incur the wrath of Apone once more by asking for a way out of "this chickenshit outfit". During the drop, Hudson's sarcasm continued as he attempted to get his fellow Marines fired up and in good spirits ahead of a mission that most of them believed would be a waste of time. Hudson also mocked Ripley's insecurity, bragging that the team would protect her with their advanced weaponry and firepower.
After landing at the colony, Hudson bypassed the door into the main admin building before helping to clear the ground floor with the rest of First Squad. After mistakenly identifying pet hamsters as a threat on his motion tracker, Hudson and Vasquez discovered the first signs of Xenomorph presence at the colony, coming across several large holes burned through the building's sub-levels by Xenomorph blood. With the building secure, Hudson began accessing the colony's central computer in the operations room, attempting to locate the missing colonists through their PDTs. Before long he located the signals, gathered in the atmosphere processing plant, and the Marines set off to investigate.
Upon discovering the hive within the structure, Gorman ordered all rifles to be slung to prevent gunfire damaging the processor's reactor; Hudson was among the more vocal objectors. His protest was proven to be justified when the killing of a Chestburster woke the entire hive, with Hudson picking up the movement on his motion tracker. The Marines were soon set upon by a swarm of drones, one of which attempted to drag Hudson away before Hicks intervened, although Hudson was lightly wounded. Upon returning to the APC, Hudson was further injured when a Xenomorph's acid blood burned his arm after Hicks killed it with his shotgun.
Following the disastrous ambush, Hudson discovered that — judging by their vital signs — Apone and Corporal Dietrich had not been killed in the ambush, but had instead been taken alive by the Xenomorphs. However, he opposed any attempts at rescuing the two, an opinion backed up by Ripley, who insisted they were already being cocooned to be hosts for more Xenomorphs. After a plan to escape the moon and destroy the colony with a nuclear strike was undone by the loss of their dropship Bug Stomper, Hudson finally lost his cool, freaking out and insisting they were finished, with Hicks having to calm him down. The Marines salvaged what they could from the wreckage and returned to the operations center.
Despite Hudson's continued hysteria over the desperate situation they faced, Ripley managed to calm him to the point where he was able to assist in setting up sentry guns and other defenses inside the colony. When Ripley and Newt, the only surviving colonist, were attacked by Facehuggers in the med lab, Hudson personally saved Newt. When Carter Burke was revealed as the culprit and his plan to eliminate the surviving Marines and smuggle a Xenomorph home was exposed, Hudson was all in favour of executing him for his treason.
Fate[]
"Game over, man! Game over!" - William Hudson
Before the Marines could hand out Burke's punishment, the Xenomorphs cut the power to the building. Hudson briefly patrolled the corridors with Vasquez using motion trackers, but when they realized they were up against a huge force they fell back to the operations center and sealed the doors. The drones entered through the ceiling and attacked, and while Hudson managed to hold them off virtually single-handed for some time, another drone eventually pulled the floor out from beneath him. Despite trying to shoot the creature and Hicks' attempts to save him, he was dragged away. Hudson's ultimate fate is unknown, though it was likely that he was cocooned and impregnated with a Chestburster; the Chestburster later killed him when it reached maturity and birthed.