Re: Ctrl+V
Lt. Gorman should have never ordered Sgt Apone to remove all of his men's magazines; this creates too many problems and other queries for me.
Firstly, they are meant to be well-trained marines, who obey every order given, even if the order leads to their deaths. So if Gorman said no fire from your rifles and fire from their side-arms only, they should have obeyed them. Even then if they come under attack, they should have been brave and skilled enough to deal with them with just their 9mm's.
Second. Just before the attack, Hicks has his shotgun out and you can see Frost with his side-arm, but Crowe and Wierzbowski are seen still holding their rifles with no magazine in them, rendering these two soldiers useless during the forthcoming battle, as they are not holding their side-arms at the ready. This might explain Wierzbowski's death, as Crowe is blown in half by the ammo exploding from Frost's bag, but Wierzbowski's survives and is then killed by a alien, so if he had been ready for the battle, he might have survived. (Just an observation, he might have been too wounded to fight, from the explosion and was easy prey for an alien)
And for me, this creates problems later in the film, after the drop-ship crashes destroying the APC. Thus leaving the remaining survivors with hardly any ammo, none of the marines had used there pulse rifles at that point. So they would have had plenty of ammo left.
After the crash, Hicks said they had recovered four pulse rifles with one magazine each from the wreckage, but why did they not arm up before being picked up by the drop-ship. Once again their training should have indicated to them to be armed and ready for the unexpected, especially after losing over half of their team about fifteen minutes before.
"I like to keep this handy for close encounters"